Oblivion First Impressions

[Shadowstrider]

This article sums up one of my main gripes with the game relatively well.

 

http://www.gamerdad.com/detail.cfm?itemID=3123

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Thats an example of "You just can't win." If you make a game linear, people complain. If you make a game open, people complain. If you make a middle ground, people call it linear.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

"took me a while to get it but I can eek out about a 10 point improvement each "round." "

 

to what end?  is not like you get more dialogue options or quest choices.  am understanding that you can make everybody love you, but why should Gromnir care?

 

HA! Good Fun!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You need to use it on some people to get certain dialogue which can lead to quests (Hunters run being one example). Also I found it helps with how much you can haggle up prices at a store as well.

 

Maybe you need it more if you have a low personality score?

[Llyranor]

This article sums up one of my main gripes with the game relatively well.

 

http://www.gamerdad.com/detail.cfm?itemID=3123

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Thats an example of "You just can't win." If you make a game linear, people complain. If you make a game open, people complain. If you make a middle ground, people call it linear.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, more or less. It just brings up the point of player preferences and development priorities. My preference is in interactive storytelling. Oblivion fails in hooking me into the story, while FFX fails in actual game interactivity. Which is why, I guess, Obsidian/Bioware bring up the least awkward compromise in the current industry. Which doesn't mean there isn't lots of room for major improvement.

Edited March 28, 2006 by Llyranor

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Why the high scores ? Who knows. Are they deserved? On the whole probably not. However The Elder Scrolls games are unique when it comes to single player RPGs.

 

I did have a rough period with the equipment/level balance. The first gate with a 3 damage weapon, not to be recomended. Damage shields on the clanfear meant I couldnt melee them without dying.

 

The big difference here , is you cant level yourself over problem. If anything ,leveling will only make the problem worse.

[Llyranor]

Speaking of which, Shadowfax...

 

For the main storyline, I am currently

post-4 star maps. About to go to the temple to run after amulet dude.

 

 

And for the DB, I am currently

more or less mission #5-6 as a silencer. Might be just after (or further along) killing the psychopath in the water cave.

 

 

Can you give any rough estimates on how far I am both way?

[mkreku]

The main difference between Morrowind and Oblivion when it comes to conversations is that they are fully voiced in Oblivion. Unfortunately, they're still as badly and dully written as ever. I am also disappointed with how little the speechcraft skill actually does in the game. I have it up to 80% or something, but I'm not getting any advantages from it, except that it now only takes me 20 seconds to go from 60 to 90 disposition points. I would have loved if there were quests that required you to use your skills sometimes.

 

About the scaling.. I prefer the Gothic way (lots of monsters everywhere, in all shapes and sizes, but they don't respawn) before this scaling thingie. I am level 30+ and I'm doomed if I meet a goblin nowadays. They all have magic weapons (most often stuff that magically takes 20 hp/hit from me, thus making my block and armour skills useless) and they have insane amounts of hitpoints themselves. That plus the fact that I am still using the same weapon I got at around level 20 (Daedric longsword) makes it impossible for me to kill them, almost. I basically must hit them 50 times for them to die, while they only have to hit me ten. Combine that with my almighty 8 hp healing spell and you get the picture.

 

I am still loving it (the game) though! It's an explorer's dream. I just finished collecting the last 40 nirnroot thingies and am eagerly awaiting my Grand Explorer's Potion ©. I love how everytime I go out into the wilderness I find something new. Or something I've already found but haven't explored yet. The forts/mines/caves/dungeons are still mostly pointless (never any endboss, almost never any special named characters, almost never any special equipment or hidden quests/stuff/whatever) but they are much improved since Morrowind. They are bigger (perfect size, actually), feel more personal and handmade and at least have some interesting features every now and then.

 

I have no idea what I have done with my time, but I'm way behind you guys in all questlines (main, thief, et cetera) except arena.. )

[Tigranes]

Crap, there are 40 nirnroots? It took me 15 hours into the game to find one, then in the next couple i found 5 more.

 

Has anybody bought & tried Make Things Explode spell from Bravil Mage Guild? :D

[Shadowstrider]

Crap, there are 40 nirnroots? It took me 15 hours into the game to find one, then in the next couple i found 5 more.

 

Has anybody bought & tried Make Things Explode spell from Bravil Mage Guild? :D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

There is a lot more than 40.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Crap, there are 40 nirnroots? It took me 15 hours into the game to find one, then in the next couple i found 5 more.

 

Has anybody bought & tried Make Things Explode spell from Bravil Mage Guild? :D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

They grow in the verges and around little ponds that you sometimes come acorss.

Found one in the sewers too.

 

Can't say that I have I'm still using the weak fireball you get as reward for something.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

The main difference between Morrowind and Oblivion when it comes to conversations is that they are fully voiced in Oblivion. Unfortunately, they're still as badly and dully written as ever. I am also disappointed with how little the speechcraft skill actually does in the game. I have it up to 80% or something, but I'm not getting any advantages from it, except that it now only takes me 20 seconds to go from 60 to 90 disposition points. I would have loved if there were quests that required you to use your skills sometimes.

 

About the scaling.. I prefer the Gothic way (lots of monsters everywhere, in all shapes and sizes, but they don't respawn) before this scaling thingie. I am level 30+ and I'm doomed if I meet a goblin nowadays. They all have magic weapons (most often stuff that magically takes 20 hp/hit from me, thus making my block and armour skills useless) and they have insane amounts of hitpoints themselves. That plus the fact that I am still using the same weapon I got at around level 20 (Daedric longsword) makes it impossible for me to kill them, almost. I basically must hit them 50 times for them to die, while they only have to hit me ten. Combine that with my almighty 8 hp healing spell and you get the picture.

 

I am still loving it (the game) though! It's an explorer's dream. I just finished collecting the last 40 nirnroot thingies and am eagerly awaiting my Grand Explorer's Potion

[Tigranes]

Well, the first I found was underwater, so yah.

Edited March 28, 2006 by Tigranes

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Oh yeah heres something not to do.

 

I stored a load of spare items in a cupboard in one of the mages guilds. This morning they were all gone !!!

 

In their place were a bunch of clothing items.

Edited March 28, 2006 by ShadowPaladin V1.0

[LoneWolf16]

Speaking of which, Shadowfax...

 

For the main storyline, I am currently

post-4 star maps. About to go to the temple to run after amulet dude.

 

 

And for the DB, I am currently

more or less mission #5-6 as a silencer. Might be just after (or further along) killing the psychopath in the water cave.

 

 

Can you give any rough estimates on how far I am both way?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don't know about the main (I'm a few quests past where you are) but the DB one is almost over.

[Dhruin]

The hype was enormous plus Morrowind scores were pretty high (especially early) and this is a step forward in many areas so I don't find the scores surprising...GameSpy went 4/5 yesterday, which seems closer to the mark to me.

 

I must say it's an odd phenomenon - I have a laundry list of complaints and individual elements fail to impress when examined or compared with other games...but the whole is rather enjoyable. I find myself wanting to get home from work and fire it up, despite the shortcomings. Not sure if that will last...time will tell.

[Baneblade]

Well the last quest I did today was one for the mages guild. Find an invisible mage. Although I found him (detect life very handy) I still had to go through the quest path before anyone would acknowledge it.

 

And I thought using detect life was a rather clever way to find an invisible mage too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

What I was getting at is that the quest wouldnt allow you to finish it that way. You still had to follow the prescribed quest path in order to complete it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes it does...

you just have to cast dispel on the mage to make him visible...

 

EDIT: fixed the Quotes

Edited March 28, 2006 by Baneblade

[alanschu]

I'm not sure about that GameDad or whatever site. I remember running away from fight near a town, and a good number of civilians were killed.

 

The thing about walking away from the main plot, I find it easy to "deal with" as when I'm in a situation that requires "immediate" results, I don't just leave and come back.

Edited March 28, 2006 by alanschu

[Silpheed]

Shadowstrider, did Bethsoft make casting spells "cheaper" depending on your skill in the different magic schools? I always hated that in Morrowind how I was a Grand Mage but I couldn't use my magic any more efficient than a initiate..

 

EDIT: Btw, I managed to kill a guard by mistake and will get my "invitation" to the DB soon. Should I go for it? My character is currently a customised spellsword, Blade, Heavy Armor, Destruction, Illusion, Alteration,Conjuration and Sneak. Can a character such as mine do the DB quest without way too much hassle?

Edited March 28, 2006 by Silpheed

[Hassat Hunter]

No idea. Suppose it's handy if your in a dark area but my kitty has "blue" vision (night vision in blue) so it's of no particular use generally. Although my game seems to be a lot less dark than the screenshots people have posted here. Could be because I'm playing it on a TV.

 

Vampire kitties for teh win. Night eye AND detect life in one little power... perfect for those nightly hit and runs. And perfect for NEVER getting ambushed again(even if some claim I do get ambushed by Mudcrabs... " )

 

Well, you can get more information or persuade people to give up items and such (quest related). Gromnir doesn't have to care if he doesn't want to. Practicing does increase your speechcraft skill, yes, but that's the name of the game. There were many times in MW when making someone like my character more helped complete quests without resorting to combat.

 

Personal stuff on this: Some info requires like a 50+ disposition. Usually nonsense though, but one guy was nice enough to give me some locations on my map. Several quests (corruption at the guards is a prime example for this one; since you need to do this with 4 people) require you to have 80+ disposition before starting/continuing. Fun thing is that the persusion mini-game (for me) only goes to about 70, so I have to bribe the guys for additional cash.

And if it is good for Haggling? Dunno, altough one of my favourite sellers gave me better deals with 82 disposition as with a (now fixed... even failed haggling doesn't lower it) 100 dispostion. Same storekeeper also never updated with completed quest information though, and still tells me "I will deny X" while X is savely dealt with

 

Crap, there are 40 nirnroots? It took me 15 hours into the game to find one, then in the next couple i found 5 more.

 

Hope there is no collect them all quest, since I accidentely ate a few already :">

 

Shadowstrider, did Bethsoft make casting spells "cheaper" depending on your skill in the different magic schools? I always hated that in Morrowind how I was a Grand Mage but I couldn't use my magic any more efficient than a initiate..

 

The beginning healing spell does for me... I assume other spells do too then...

[Shadowstrider]

Shadowstrider, did Bethsoft make casting spells "cheaper" depending on your skill in the different magic schools? I always hated that in Morrowind how I was a Grand Mage but I couldn't use my magic any more efficient than a initiate..

 

EDIT: Btw, I managed to kill a guard by mistake and will get my "invitation" to the DB soon. Should I go for it? My character is currently a customised spellsword, Blade, Heavy Armor, Destruction, Illusion, Alteration,Conjuration and Sneak. Can a character such as mine do the DB quest without way too much hassle?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes. Gaining levels in a spell school causes the spells to cost signifigantly less magicka.

[Kaftan Barlast]

If youve done a bad build so enemies are overpowering then you could open the console and write

 

player.setlevel X

 

where X is the level you want to be, it doesnt change any stats except your level so you can use it to adjust the difficulty of the opponents. OR you could just turn down the difficulty "

 

 

edit: Im not cheating at Oblivion, I used PlayerMenuRace to fine tune my appearance and that ****ed upp all my skills so I had to set them back and that screwed my levels up aswell.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Yes it does...

you just have to cast dispel on the mage to make him visible... 

 

EDIT: fixed the Quotes 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Not capable of casting it. I should have been able to say heres over there though since I found him. He just keeps telling you to go away.

[Tigranes]

You don't need 80+ disposition for most things. In fact, 65+ seems to be fine, I usually do it till maxdisp (70+) for all quest people as Speechcraft is my major (and it takes me 20 secs)... maybe I missed some 'special' bits, but that's what you get if you don't have high speechcraft.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

I need to raise my merchant skill, any tips on how to do it without dying of boredom?

[Cantousent]

I completely wasted a slot in my skills by choosing Speechcraft. I see absolutely no purpose as I can achieve the same goals in other ways.

 

The Dialogue is almost always disjointed in some way or another. Still, 30+ hours into the game and I'm still enjoying myself. What can I say? I do quests but I'm not stuck on roaming aimlessly.

 

If Morrowind were the same, I'd have scored it much higher than I did. ...But that doesn't mean Oblivion didn't earn the grade. It's an imperfect game, but it's a good game. In fact, it's a great game for me.

 

I did fail a quest, however:

 

 

In The Killing Fields, I failed to save the sons. As a mage, it was almost impossible for me to get easy shots with my best spells while the enemies engage in melee with the friendlies. I could get in one good fireball before they closed. Then I managed to kill the first couple of waves but the last son fell before I'd finished the bad guys. I hate failing a quest when it means folks dying, but that's how the game goes. When I play again, I'll be more careful to have heal other before I take this quest.

 

[LoneWolf16]

I just bribe the hell out of people until I get the information I want. It's not like I'm hurting for cash, ya know?