Oblivion First Impressions

[alanschu]

Since somebody clearly doesn't know what a FedEx quest is:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_(gaming)#Fedex_quest

[Pidesco]

You run around to all sorts of different places though, which is totally FedEx.

 

By that rationale all quests are FedEx. At least I can't think of a quest where all you have to do is stand still.

 

 

 

Edit: To make things clearer

Edited March 27, 2006 by Soulseeker

[Dyan]

Oh, if you rename a file you can have topless elf chicks. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Dare I ask which file?

[Judge Hades]

I don't think I should share. There might be young impressionable people on these forums.

[Dhruin]

That they don't see you standing there and the combat at the end is a matter of implementation. I certainly think the quest should be better polished...but that has nothing to do with the style of quest it represents.

 

Let me turn it around...give me an example of a quest that you think isn't fedex. I've played pretty much every cRPG for many, many years so choose whatever example you like.

[Shadowstrider]

Am i the only one having this problem? Or am i just the only one who's tried uninstalling yet?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You're not the only one, in either case.

[LoneWolf16]

I don't think I should share.  There might be young impressionable people on these forums.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

:'(

[alanschu]

Hmmm. Anyone have any problems joining the Mage's Guild? It turns out that one of the markers for the Joining Mage Guild quest didn't go away when I completed the task for the recommendation (in Chorral). Now it seems I can no longer ask the marked NPC about recommendation. Unfortunately, I noticed this looooong after I did that quest.

[Dyan]

I don't think I should share.  There might be young impressionable people on these forums.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Didn't think so. "

 

Not like I've even got the game - yet. <_<

 

Maybe tomorrow

[LoneWolf16]

Just wondering...is it possible to join the Blackwood Company? If so, where at? Seems like a small non-human organization of fighters that'd be cool to get into.

[Lare Kikkeli]

Am i the only one having this problem? Or am i just the only one who's tried uninstalling yet?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You're not the only one, in either case.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Any idea why this is happening? Or how to fix it?

[Hassat Hunter]

Let me turn it around...give me an example of a quest that you think isn't fedex.  I've played pretty much every cRPG for many, many years so choose whatever example you like.

 

Oblivion itself: Arena

Kotor2: Battle ring/Escaping Peragus/The Will of the dead scavangers on Dantooine/constructing HK etc. etc.

Kotor1: Korriban Tomb Test, several Test assignments etc. etc.

 

Largest grip with the Thortorin-quest that makes it "FedEx" is because there is absolutely no skill required or anything besides just walking and talking/taking from point A to B. Sure they can say "Track him after he leaves his shop" but if it just stays standing next to him I can't say how I can't call it FedEx. Examples of Non-FedEx jobs are the Arena in Oblivion itself; and I can't be bothered to check out any other RPG's right now for their quest-history...

Like I said if the following really forced you to keep a small distance and hide this quest would be SO Non-FedEx... but alas *sigh*

My definition of a FedEx job is that you have to get from A to B and then maybe even C and D without any need of thinking, strategy or covertlyhood/scripted combat, because the quest only exists of that walking...; if you think this makes every queste in RPG's a FedEx in my eyes you haven't played RPG's beyond MW, or don't understand what I am on about

 

And to Lovewolf; probably not. Seems like "own goals" are not to be able to be furfilled. See afore mentioned love relation with another woman I couldn't tell his wife about, or if you hunt the Gray Fox to kill him you never succeed; atleast not without completing I don't know how many thieves-guild quests :wicked: *sigh*

 

PS. And finally, am I not supposed to fight people, but is my look scary enough for dead (Am I THAT ugly?)? I wen't into the Imperial City Market Area Sewers and the first thing I noticed was a Khajit bandit dropping dead infront of me when waking up from his bed...

Edited March 28, 2006 by Hassat Hunter

[Cantousent]

Okay, aside from the fact that my friend, Hassat, doesn't understand the term "Fed-ex," I have a few observations after quite a few hours of play.

 

First of all, I find it disconcerting that an NPC will see me, make a loud comment about my status as savior of "x," then feed me the rumor that "x" was destroyed.

 

I find it irritating when I finish a quest and the person from whom I received the quest seems to forgot salient facts about it.

 

I'm dismayed when I see legionaires try to take down a bandit, one legionaire accidently hit his comrade, and then the two legionaires suddenly fight each other while the bandit runs around shooting at random. Of course, I took care of the bandit, but I couldn't make heads or tails out of the legionaires, so I left them to fight.

 

How about this: an empire forester was chasing some deer through the forest and shrubs. He yells out at the top of his lungs, "WHY. WON'T. YOU. DIE!!!" Yes, I was getting ready for a fight when I saw him. I actually followed for some distance trying to find out if there were some ugly beast hiding in their midst.

 

This is another head scratcher: I'm following one of my fellow Blades when a fight ensues. After the battle, the blade is walking around with a arrow sprinding through his abdomen. Getting hit with an arrow is tough, but walking around and fighting several battles with it sticking out of yourself must be excruciating. Anyhow, I kept trying to take it. Those arrows have an excellent weight to coin ratio.

 

After all that, what do I think? I Love this game. It's what Morrowind wanted to be. This is the potential to which Bethesda aspired. This is one of the best games of recent years. You should but it, enjoy it, and thank me later for my excellent advice.

[Hassat Hunter]

First of all, I find it disconcerting that an NPC will see me, make a loud comment about my status as savior of "x," then feed me the rumor that "x" was destroyed.

 

This reminds me off something too. I had to rob X for a quest. All done and well some guy in the Arena audience tells me X is dead during a violent robbery (even if I never heard that one it was already greyed out too)...

So I break into X house again and go to his bedroom. Yup; there he is alive and well. Apparently he is bothered I am in his house, and requires me to leave. It DOESN'T bother him though I give his wife 6(!) holes in her neck... nice husband.

So, after this extensive feeding I decide to kill his wife; maybe this would cause a good response.

Whack his wife; who now wakes up atlast, and her husband runs off.

Following fight was pretty ridiculus, after every hit on that woman she yelled "ah! Intruder!", and she never even tried defending/running at all; only yelling things that broke off and re-started at the next hit.

 

Besides all that; I have a good time (the Arena is just cool) but I still don't think this is THE game of 2006...

[Tabulated Rasa]

I've spent 4-5 hours on this game now, though I haven't really started the main quest. These are my first impressions in roughly the order that I came across them.

 

The graphics are quite good. I particularly enjoy the view distance, as it allows you to sit on a ridge line and see distant castles and mountains. It's much better than the fog out of which everything appeared in Morrowind, even if details are lost in the distance. I'm using an Athlon 3000+ with 1GB of RAM and a GEForce 6200, with many of the visual options reduced, but the game still looks far superior to Morrowind, in my opinion. The framerates are good enough for me at 800x600.

 

The options for creating the visual appearance of your character's face are detailed, almost to the point of absurdity. I'm certain that there must be over a hundred slider bars and options in cusomizing the appearance of your character. It's certainly a far cry from Morrowind's ugly faces.

 

The options for character creation are a slightly simplified version of the system used by Morrowind. There are fewer skills, and their progress is lumped into "apprentice 0-25," "journeyman 25-50" and the like (yes, my exact skill point values are probably off, for the extremely nitpicky folks among you). Other than that, it's almost identical.

 

The dialog system is much improved from Morrowind in that it went back to Baldur's Gate-style canned responses. There is a persuasion mini-game as well, which; though I appreciate Bethesda's effort in attempting to make dialog more entertaining, fun, and realistic; frankly sucks.

 

The gameplay itself is almost identical to that of Morrowind. That means that the combat is relatively boring and leaves little to strategy. Sneaking and stealing are more exciting and fun in both Morrowind and Oblivion than is fighting. Innovations include the ability to cast spells without having to raise one's hands in advance and the ability to manually block using the right mouse button to raise a shield or put a weapon in defensive position. The innovations are a marginal improvement, but it's still basically the same as Morrowind in the basic gameplay.

 

Quests seem to be more slightly more creative or more cleverly disguised fed-exers. SPOILER -- In one quest, I was sent by invisible people to find an invisible wizard, get the reversal spell and cast it in the center of town. There was some fun dialog and the added challenge of having to track down the invisible man to fetch something and bring it back to other invisible men. --

 

All in all, my first impression is that it is Morrowind with better graphics, better dialog (except for that insipid speechcraft mini-game), and better quests. If you liked Morrowind, you'll probably love this game. If you hated Morrowind, you will probably not like this game. If you thought Morrowind was alright, but dialog or boring quests were the primary things that kept you from enjoying the game, then I would certainly recommend giving this one a try. If you haven't played Morrowind, but you like other RPGs, I'd recommend giving this a try, based on what I've seen thus far.

[alanschu]

Kotor2: Battle ring/Escaping Peragus/The Will of the dead scavangers on Dantooine/constructing HK etc. etc.

Kotor1: Korriban Tomb Test, several Test assignments etc. etc.

 

Those are totally FedEx quests. I mean, you have to go places, and do stuff. Sometimes you have to go over places that you have been before.

 

Complain about the quests being too easy. But they clearly are not FedEx quests.

 

Unless FedEx quests have been expanded to (small spoilers for one quest):

• Learn about concerns of merchants
  
• Talk to merchant in question
  
• Follow questionable merchant after hours
  
• Learn of secret rendezvous with strange person
  
• Follow this strange person
  
• Discover the residence of this strange person
  
• Wait for person to leave house unattended
  
• Break into strange person's house, looking for evidence
  
• Upon finding evidence, confront questionable merchant
  
• Obtain clues for the strange person's current whereabouts
  
• Find strange person, and defend yourself against an ambush
  
• Upon defeating the strange person, obtain some final evidence to further clear questionable merchant
  
• Return to leader of concerned merchants, and talk with questionable merchant
  

I wish games had more FedEx quests like this.

 

I don't understand the "skill" comment either. FedEx quests aren't always cakewalks either. The quest for the Carsomyr (which is total FedEx... "Go to Place X" "Obtain Item Y" "Return to me") from Firkraag is a difficult quest.

 

I think you're being overly critical of the game, for the sake of just bashing it (perhaps some bitterness since ShadowStrider is involved, since you two are always disagreeing about something).

[LadyCrimson]

@Tabulated Rasa -

 

My big problem with MW was that I got extremely bored by the 1/2-3/4 point, resorted to mods and the editor, where I played w/the editor more than I actually played the game...then stopped...I liked the character making/skill building & scenery part, but the story-quests just felt like they dragged/weren't interesting or something..and I don't even mind fed-ex quests all that much... Anyway...if that aspect has been improved, sounds good.

 

Eldar's phrasing of "it's what MW wanted to be" is interesting too.

 

Quite honestly I expected a lot of people here to bash it to tiny pieces...if you guys aren't, then someone like me will probably like it quite a bit, when I finally get around to it.

[Judge Hades]

I have an odd question. Why do the skeletons scratch their ass and yawn?

[astr0creep]

I have an odd question.  Why do the skeletons scratch their ass and yawn?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Because they are itchy and bored.

[Judge Hades]

Its a skeleton!!! Animated bones! How can a bone get itchy and yawn without lungs?!?!?!?

[Hassat Hunter]

Little warning to my fellow Oblivion players;

If you explore near the Imperial City and find the sideway cavern and then manage to get to Lost Abagarlas, stay OUT of the marked area (see attachment)

 

It is easy to wringle yourself past that branch hanging there... and get in, but it is impossible to get out, beside a Forced Reload...

[astr0creep]

Its a skeleton!!!  Animated bones!  How can a bone get itchy and yawn without lungs?!?!?!?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, they're animated bones. A-N-I-M-A-T-E-D bones.

Therefore, they itch and they are bored.

 

No more explanation needed.

 

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

I have an odd question.  Why do the skeletons scratch their ass and yawn?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Never seen that one. I have seen a couple of dancing rats though

 

I've been playing for about 10 hours in total. It's getting a bit MMPORGish now though. The critters have scaled up so killing one will require healing (healing spells are awful for mana to health ratio) and two will put me close to death.

 

In the Kvatch siege I had a couple of those annoying clanfears (with damage shields) a Deadra that kept summoning stuff. Some fire creatures (not sure what those were) and a couple of those fireball tossing imps (the upgraded version).

 

Dwarven longsword doing 8 damage wasnt really cutting it.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Its a skeleton!!!  Animated bones!  How can a bone get itchy and yawn without lungs?!?!?!?

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It's a "feature".

[astr0creep]

Maybe in the features list Beth sent the media they mispelled "Radiant AI". Maybe it should've been "Random AI" instead.