Oblivion First Impressions

[Diogo Ribeiro]

http://myspace-225.vo.llnwd.net/00605/52/26/605496225_l.jpg

 

Noes! Hot skooma!

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[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Someone over on the TES boards said they finished the plot at level 1 with a rusty dagger.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Someone over on the TES boards said they finished the plot at level 1 with a rusty dagger. 

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A level 1 character with a rusty dagger has more chances of

surviving Kvatch

than a level 20 character. Go figure. Levels, being an expression of character power, seem to be almost contradicting in the game.

 

Funny that the same level 1 character can also finish the central story arc but

cannot save the Emperor.

 

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

A level 1 character with a rusty dagger has more chances of

surviving Kvatch

than a level 20 character. Go figure. Levels, being an expression of character power, seem to be almost contradicting in the game.

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Wouldnt suprise me I had a nightmare in that place because of the damage shields on a certain creature (and there were two of them).

 

Oblivion is all about you "bling" Once I came across the magic longsword which did 19 damage it got remarkably easy. I tend to use a glass mace and keep the sword just for times when I'm outnumbered.

 

Theres just something not quite right when your equipment defines you to that extent.

[Vic]

Finally got the game. Dialogue seems fine, not seeming dull or especially boring compared to most CRPGs as described here. Sometimes great in some areas.

 

To my surprise, I'm enjoying the scaling immensly. When I heard about it here and other places, I figured I would hate it by the way it's described. But I've found that I love being able to go anywhere and tackle any quest I want and not have to worry about my level, or if I'm strong enough, and I'd still have a challenge on my hands (and even being able to adjust that challenge in the difficulty slider to my preference, no less).

 

I like the style much better than the gimping of travel and advancement because you haven't finished x# of small quests, killing x# of petty monsters.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

To my surprise, I'm enjoying the scaling immensly. When I heard about it here and other places, I figured I would hate it by the way it's described. But I've found that I love being able to go anywhere and tackle any quest I want and not have to worry about my level, or if I'm strong enough, and I'd still have a challenge on my hands (and even being able to adjust that challenge in the difficulty slider to my preference, no less).

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It will be interesting to see if you still feel that way at level 20.

[Vic]

Past.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Past.

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How much have you been playing with the slider?

[Vic]

Haven't changed it since before 10.

[mkreku]

Just wait until the Goblin Warlords start popping up.. in pairs.

[kefka]

I never use the slider though I'm tempted to do so when mobbed by Goblin warlords. Those guys are nasty.

 

The only problem I have with the difficulty is that certain creatures have no business being that tough. I was out exploring some place at level 12 when I encountered my first black bear. Easy I thought - I've just wasted a bunch of daedra at Kvatch... *ahem*.. I died! Those bears are lethal. And lets not forget the mountain lion. Took me out in like 2 hits.

[Gromnir]

Someone over on the TES boards said they finished the plot at level 1 with a rusty dagger. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

A level 1 character with a rusty dagger has more chances of

surviving Kvatch

than a level 20 character. Go figure. Levels, being an expression of character power, seem to be almost contradicting in the game.

 

Funny that the same level 1 character can also finish the central story arc but

cannot save the Emperor.

 

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the level/scale system is... odd. the more we get into the game, the more we is wondering what bethesda were thinking.

 

Gromnir went through the starting tutorial with a couple different characters... just to see how/if they had actual gameplay differences. quickly we abandonded the marksman+light armour+magic build. marksman sans sneak were a waste... and with sneak we were giving up too many of the magic schools we wanted.

 

next we went with a bruiser character. blunt+heavy armour+armourer+restoration & the death sentence that is athletics+speechcraft.+security. walked 'round the imperial city for an hour or two and then decided to head out into the woods. *groan* too much levels w/too weak combat skills.

 

finally we goes with blade+light armour+magic. is a workable build but we notices that conjuration, in particular, is advancing far faster than is our other skills... and our strategies seems limited to summoning some powerful critter and then running away from the baddies who is trying to chop us into little bits. at lower levels we were able to join in combats with our little iron sword, but now we simply gets mutilated... so we summons and heals and cast some sorta alteration school protection spell... then run 'round in circles. every once in a while we is able to get off a firebolt or similar destruction school magic spell, but not 'nuff to gets much better with destruction skill.

 

now admittedly Gromnir incompetence is part of the problem. the interface is far too demanding for us. am a 1 or 2 button mouse guy, but this game requires us to move with wasd and at same time we gotta cast spells with "c"... but we change spells with number keys 1-8. maybe if we were more accostomed to fps games we would not mind this interface, but we feels too clumsy to accomplish the simultaneous tasks of moving properly while changing and casting spells at the same time... add in sword swinging and we is doomed. so... we runs in circles and summons and heals and maybe gets off a firebolt once in a while. is getting very tedious and we notice that our reliance on such a pathetic tactic is not decreasing as we advance in levels and grow more comfortable with the interface. in point of fact, 'cause of way critters scale, we is increasingly reliant on summons & run tactics.

 

oh, and the dialogues is bad. am not needing shakespeare or even chekhov... heck, even star trek's chekov (walter koeing?) would be an improvement. is just kinda... lame. actually felt pitty for patrick stewart.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

It's got to be one of the most logic defying games though.

 

I mean your better off if you minor the skills you will use a lot because you will end up stronger than if you major them.

 

Your also better off picking a character with low skill bonuses for the same reason. It's just odd...

 

Your comparitively stronger at level 1 than you are at level 20 to scaling enemies.

[metadigital]

Well, you don't have to level ..! "

[Gromnir]

It's got to be one of the most logic defying games though.

 

I mean your better off if you minor the skills you will use a lot because you will end up stronger than if you major them.

 

Your also better off picking a character with low skill bonuses for the same reason. It's just odd...

 

Your comparitively stronger at level 1 than you are at level 20 to scaling enemies.

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again, it ain't that you is stronger, is that you is much more balanced. skills increase at oddly unbalanced rates. so even if you use sword often and conjure whenever in battle, your conjure goes up faster and so you level faster, and you become more reliant on conjure 'cause your blade skill lags ever further behind. w/o doing some crazy gameplay gymnastics there just not seem to be a way to keeps all your most useful skills to be increasing at a similar rate.

 

at 1st level the gap 'tween your best and non-used skills will be slight. a first level goblin is not that much better of a combatant than your spell casting character... but at 10+ levels, a goblin is a pretty nasty combat critter, and your magic wielder is probably pretty hopeless by this point.

 

*shrug*

 

it ain't the scale system that bothers us so much as is the leveling of your own character.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[mkreku]

Odd. I am a blade/light armour/magic-user myself, but my Blade skill was the first to hit 100. I am still only in the fifties with my magic schools. They level slow as hell!

 

The second skill that will reach 100 for me is my armourer skill. One battle and my Daedric sword plummets from 125 to below 100. At least that's how it feels.

[Gromnir]

again, it depends on which skill you rely on initially, 'cause you will be ever increasingly stuck relying on it.

 

if you play sword wielder from start w/o relying on magic then of course you is gonna get better at sword... and the better you get at sword, the more you level, and the more your opponents level... and the less likely you will be to be able to use other skills effectively.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[metadigital]

So, it's not the game's fault: it's the faulty players' strategies (or lack of cogent strategem)!

 

lack of balancing whilst building character -> lack of balanced character

[Meshugger]

All this auto-balancing sounds weird to me. Are you guys saying that when my character is level 80, then even the sewer-rats will be level 80

 

And to add to it, what is the point on advancing in magic if everyone advances with you? Honestly, i was a bit unaware of this.

Edited March 30, 2006 by Meshugger

[metadigital]

No, you will not see level 80 sewer rats. You will see level 80 monsters, local to the area that you are.

[Meshugger]

But if i was level 1, they would also be level 1, right?

[Enoch]

Is it just me, or does scaling the entire world to level up with the character basically amounts to having no levels at all? The differences only seem to exist in that the world scaling isn't perfectly matched to the advances in character competence, which makes the difficulty swing in a seemingly random fashion.

Edited March 30, 2006 by Enoch

[Gromnir]

So, it's not the game's fault: it's the faulty players' strategies (or lack of cogent strategem)!

 

lack of balancing whilst building character -> lack of balanced character

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as far as we can tell, there ain't no way to makes a blanced character w/o doing some crazy gymnastics to do so. if one skill starts getting high, you better spend the next few hours using your weak skills exclusively to brings 'em up... which is difficult 'cause then you levels and the critters gets even tougher... making it more difficult for you to win battles with your weaker combat skills. is nutty.

 

oh, and again, if you spend time in city with lots of speech & security encounters you is gonna be screwed even worse... 'cause once you walk out of city and get attacked by 12th level timber wolfs you is likewise screwed.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Gromnir]

Is it just me, or does scaling the entire world to level up with the character basically amounts to having no levels at all?  The differences only seem to exist in that the world scaling isn't perfectly matched to the advances in character competence, which makes the difficulty swing in a seemingly random fashion.

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learn by doing has always been subject to balance problems... but oblivion is worse than most such attempts we has seen. you can seemingly level by advancing enough in 1 or 2 skills... but encounter toughness increases across the board. see the problem? 'specially for the folks who levels too quickly in non-combat skills?

 

*shrug*

 

scaling is fine... is the leveling that is screwed.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[metadigital]

Is it just me, or does scaling the entire world to level up with the character basically amounts to having no levels at all?  The differences only seem to exist in that the world scaling isn't perfectly matched to the advances in character competence, which makes the difficulty swing in a seemingly random fashion.

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