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[ocelittle]

Start the main quest, then...

Go to Weynon Prior or whatever the quest is...

It seems like your ignoring the game and that's not going to work. Once you get started, it's hard to stop.

I did NOT expect to like this game, but I love it. It just takes a minute to get going.

 

[Speevy]

I haven't played an RPG like this in years. And to be honest, unless this picks up I'm sure I won't play one like it again. A little direction isn't a bad thing. The game just feels overwhelming.

That's the idea. Hundreds of quests, adventure anywhere, all at your own pace. The game is not the same for any two people.

 

[RevenantKioku]

That's the idea. Hundreds of quests, adventure anywhere, all at your own pace. The game is not the same for any two people.

I'm watching a woman till the soil for a quest.

 

[Nerevar]

I'm watching a woman till the soil for a quest.

you're doing the paranoia quest, which is unequivocally the most boring quest in the game.

How in the hell are you "lost" in Oblivion? *boggles*

 

[epmode]

(minor, timesaving) spoiler regarding that quest:

Spoiler

I'm 99% sure you don't have to actually watch anyone he mentions, since none of the targets are stalking him in any way.

 

[RevenantKioku]

She's tilling rocks now! Woo!

(minor, timesaving) spoiler regarding that quest:

Spoiler

I'm 99% sure you don't have to actually watch anyone he mentions, since none of the targets are stalking him in any way.

Are you F**#$()*#@$UKING KIDDING ME!?

 

[Speevy]

She's tilling rocks now! Woo!

And if you run into her, she'll till wood. Stop posting in this thread.

 

[civilstrife]

That's the idea. Hundreds of quests, adventure anywhere, all at your own pace. The game is not the same for any two people.

Yeah, I was worried that my primarily Linear game heritage would hamper my enjoyment of this game, but I was completely wrong.

Its so refreshing to able to experience nearly any aspect of the game at the precise moment I want to. I just had to turn off the part of my brain that was saying "You can't go there yet! You haven't finished all the content here!"

 

[LakeEarth]

I'm watching a woman till the soil for a quest.

You go ahead and just leave that quest for another time. But if you have to do it, know that you CAN skip time ahead. Skip it ahead an hour, if she doesn't stop, skip it ahead another hour.

 

[My Arms Your Hearse]

It thought it was 255 for each stat?
Dang...I heard wrong

I still haven't figured out how to use my multipliers...I have never upped a stat by more than 3 when levelling up.

255 is the traditional FF cap. Maybe you're somehow confused?

And as far as Oblivion is concerned, now that I've pretty much done everything I want to do with it, with all the characters I wanted to do it with... it is a great game... but still not my thing. The game ultimately feels unrewarding(!).

There is a lot to do and to see (most of which is unfortunately irrelevant fluff), but I was hoping for more out of the endgame. I don't feel special, powerful, or unique. It doesn't take nearly as long to max out as I'd hoped either... it is actually amazingly simple (I could get to 30 in a day, easy - while finishing a faction line or two)). There are tons of quests I haven't done, but the problem is... there is NO reason to do them, other than to say "Ok, I did it." That doesn't interest me. I'll freely admit I'm more of a power gamer when it comes to these things, and the vast majority of the content in Oblivion doesn't do anything at all for my characters.

I'll certainly be buying all subsequent iterations of the series though, if they remain as accessible as this one (as opposed to say Morrowind). Even though I couldn't get into it, this game is ultimately pretty shallow when compared to the expansiveness of Morrowind, which by all indications offered a lot more satisfaction upon "completion" (shit tons more quests, factions, levels, harder to max out, etc). We need a Morrowind port to the Oblivion engine.

 

[Speevy]

Give me a fireball, an ordinator, and entrance into the mage's guild and I'll have a Morrowind God character in an afternoon.

And you're wrong about the quests, Oblivion is just based more on freelance.

 

[dammitmattt]

You go ahead and just leave that quest for another time. But if you have to do it, know that you CAN skip time ahead. Skip it ahead an hour, if she doesn't stop, skip it ahead another hour.

Spoiler

After he tells you to watch them, just skip 24 hours ahead to the next night and tell him whatever you want. Do this all 3 times and then quest over.

Kioku, I can't believe you stumbled onto that quest as your first quest of the game! If you actually did what he wanted to it would be extremely boring! For your tastes, just stick to the main quest or join a guild and go straight through those quests. And why are you posting so often while playing? Just sit on your couch and get lost in the game for hours like I (and everyone else) do.

 

[Nerevar]

I'll certainly be buying all subsequent iterations of the series though, if they remain as accessible as this one (as opposed to say Morrowind). Even though I couldn't get into it, this game is ultimately pretty shallow when compared to the expansiveness of Morrowind, which by all indications offered a lot more satisfaction upon "completion" (shit tons more quests, factions, levels, harder to max out, etc). We need a Morrowind port to the Oblivion engine.

While I haven't given Oblivion as much time as Morrowind, I definitely feel it's harder to max yourself in Oblivion than in Morrowind. The endgame of Morrowind was all about fast abuse. I could have a max character (literally, all skills and attributes at 100) in under a day due to potion & theft abuse (sans the skills without master trainers of course - I still can't believe they forgot about them in the retail version :lol ). That combined with the super jump / slowfall exploit made the game incredibly simple when you hit high levels. I was under the impression the devs at Bethesda really tried hard to prevent Oblivion from becoming the same.

Give me a fireball, an ordinator, and entrance into the mage's guild and I'll have a Morrowind God character in an afternoon.

yeah, ordinator + mudcrab merchant = easy money.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Spoiler

After he tells you to watch them, just skip 24 hours ahead to the next night and tell him whatever you want. Do this all 3 times and then quest over.

Kioku, I can't believe you stumbled onto that quest as your first quest of the game! If you actually did what he wanted to it would be extremely boring! For your tastes, just stick to the main quest or join a guild and go straight through those quests. And why are you posting so often while playing? Just sit on your couch and get lost in the game for hours like I (and everyone else) do.

I dunno, I think the two freezes in my first hour of playing got me on this pissed off roll. I'm just gonna play some Geo Wars then FFXII and call it a night. :lol

 

[dammitmattt]

255 is the traditional FF cap. Maybe you're somehow confused?

And as far as Oblivion is concerned, now that I've pretty much done everything I want to do with it, with all the characters I wanted to do it with... it is a great game... but still not my thing. The game ultimately feels unrewarding(!).

There is a lot to do and to see (most of which is unfortunately irrelevant fluff), but I was hoping for more out of the endgame. I don't feel special, powerful, or unique. It doesn't take nearly as long to max out as I'd hoped either... it is actually amazingly simple (I could get to 30 in a day, easy - while finishing a faction line or two)). There are tons of quests I haven't done, but the problem is... there is NO reason to do them, other than to say "Ok, I did it." That doesn't interest me. I'll freely admit I'm more of a power gamer when it comes to these things, and the vast majority of the content in Oblivion doesn't do anything at all for my characters.

I'll certainly be buying all subsequent iterations of the series though, if they remain as accessible as this one (as opposed to say Morrowind). Even though I couldn't get into it, this game is ultimately pretty shallow when compared to the expansiveness of Morrowind, which by all indications offered a lot more satisfaction upon "completion" (shit tons more quests, factions, levels, harder to max out, etc). We need a Morrowind port to the Oblivion engine.

Why does the game feel unrewarding? Did you not feel satisfaction from completing the various quests and/or storylines? Did you not feel satisfaction from seeing your character get bigger and better, learn more skills, get cooler stuff?

Also, I'd like to see how you could get to level 30 in a day without massively abusing the leveling system. I'm only level 22 or so, and I've played the game for 55 damn hours. You can't bitch about a negative that only exists if you blatantly abuse the game JUST to gain levels. That's a bullshit argument, especially since you are comparing it to Morrowind, which was MUCH worse about that aspect.

I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure that Morrowind did NOT have even close to as many quests as Oblivion, and it certainly didn't have as many locations in a world that is so big and beautiful. The only advantage that Morrowind had in this area was more varied and interesting towns (although I hated Vivec). I do wish Oblivion had the houses from Morrowind and had more quest lines that would preclude you from completing others like Morrowind had, but it is also nice that you can see the entire game in one playthrough if you wish.

What is your Gamertag?

 

[the ID effect]

help !

okay i'm like perma stuck in combat ... won't let me repair, sleep, fast travel ... how can i fix this ??

 

[MidgarBlowedUp]

Help!

My character faces all look like shit, what can I do?

 

[Keyser Soze]

Help!

My character faces all look like shit, what can I do?

are you still creating you character?

...if so randomize till you get something you like then edit away to you get something your happy with.

 

[MarkMacD]

we interrupt this thread for shameless 'topless patch' Oblivion nudity:

http://gamevideos.com/video/id/2706

it's ok if the lizard chick turns you on.

oh and midgar--ALL faces in the game look like shit. Dont let it bother ya.

 

[methodman]

Are you still locking up on the ship?

Yeah man, i'm getting pretty fucking pissed. I've taken a break from the game, but it's like a drug, it's calling me. Maybe i should go start as a warrior now (the stupidest thing though is that I erased all my fucking save files right before any of this shit happened, or else I would've been able to probably just skip this entire quest). That's why I'm pissed at myself... but mostly at the game lol

 

[LakeEarth]

Alright, quick question. I am doing 'finding the painting' quest in

Spoiler

Chorrals Castle, and I just can't find enough evidence to put the girl away. I found her 'hidden' painting supplies, I found the hidden hatch and painting in the west wing, what's left?

 

[Confidence Man]

Alright, quick question. I am doing 'finding the painting' quest in

Spoiler

Chorrals Castle, and I just can't find enough evidence to put the girl away. I found her 'hidden' painting supplies, I found the hidden hatch and painting in the west wing, what's left?

Spoiler

Paint stains on the floor in the dining room.

 

[LakeEarth]

Spoiler

Paint stains on the floor in the dining room.

Thanks, didn't even notice. It isn't that obvious.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Okay, people who are getting lock ups, are they happening always in the same place, or just randomly? This is my third random freeze of the day. Just fighting something and BAM X360 stops responding entirely. This is really getting annoying.

 

[ocelittle]

Yeah I've had it freeze a few times. In fact, I haven't played in two days because it froze...

 

[firex]

The one town I was in the guards said that there are no guilds in the city. >< I really feel like I'm missing something here.

I don't think you found one of the cities, then, just a small town/outpost, like the Roxey Inn.

 

[My Arms Your Hearse]

Why does the game feel unrewarding? Did you not feel satisfaction from completing the various quests and/or storylines? Did you not feel satisfaction from seeing your character get bigger and better, learn more skills, get cooler stuff?

Also, I'd like to see how you could get to level 30 in a day without massively abusing the leveling system. I'm only level 22 or so, and I've played the game for 55 damn hours. You can't bitch about a negative that only exists if you blatantly abuse the game JUST to gain levels. That's a bullshit argument, especially since you are comparing it to Morrowind, which was MUCH worse about that aspect.

I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure that Morrowind did NOT have even close to as many quests as Oblivion, and it certainly didn't have as many locations in a world that is so big and beautiful. The only advantage that Morrowind had in this area was more varied and interesting towns (although I hated Vivec). I do wish Oblivion had the houses from Morrowind and had more quest lines that would preclude you from completing others like Morrowind had, but it is also nice that you can see the entire game in one playthrough if you wish.

What is your Gamertag?

My gamertag is Darkest Ancient. I don't know why you'd be interested. I have 3400 gamer points (that includes all 1000 from Oblivion).

You don't have to abuse anything, save perhaps for the training system, to reach level 30 in a day, especially as a melee class. Which is my preferred character type. I should clarify that "in a day" I literally mean a good 12-18 hours of playing. My melee character is at 35 hours played, is level 38, had done three faction quests and most of the mainquest (though the majority of the time has been spent spelunking). Several of those hours were the game just sitting there running. This was my second character, though, so I already knew the ropes.

My battlemage is at level 20 with about 10 hours played, a few of which have simply been me standing in a corner casting spells to boost my MINOR skills to 100. Armorer, Light Armor, Block, and Blunt absolutely skyrocket considering how low a High Elf's initial skill with them is, and destruction is pretty fast too.

The game is unrewarding to me because... it is. I never feel that I've accomplished much. It is simply too easy to dominate (even with the dial turned past default). There are no HUGE rewards for doing anything, most of the stuff is randomized (and shitty). While I didn't mention it earlier, mob variation is atrociously bad... but this isn't too much of a negative. There are very few quests with worthwhile rewards, and most of them tend to break the game or skills (Skeleton Key comes to mind... makes an entire skill completely worthless - and perhaps an even worse crime for a game such as this... kills the immersion when you can have a warrior with 2 skill in security be able to flawlessly pick any lock without ever having to worry about failure).

Again, completing 15093244 quests, in and of itself, means nothing to me. Most of those quests will not provide items to improve my character, and when they do, they're minimal at best.

I will say romping about Cyrodiil during a sunny day is probably the biggest pleasure the game has offered me, and was definitely worth the price of admission.

There is also, in my opinion, a shit ton of unneeded tedium, but that shoudn't be all that unexpected (at least there isn't as much as in Morrowind).

In the end, I like the game a lot, but after putting in a good 90 hours or so across 4 main characters and a bunch of test subjects... I don't feel that I've accomplished that much. Sure, I've done a lot of quests (not nearly all, though), but most of them didn't take longer than ten minutes once I arrived at the right location. It took me a fair bit longer to unlock the offline DOA4 accomplishments that I have unlocked than it did to get all 50 for Oblivion... that shouldn't be the case (it took, hmm, 3-4 days? I wasn't even actively trying to complete them quickly, though I do tend to do faction quests/arena pretty soon on any new character to build up cash).

 

[firex]

It thought it was 255 for each stat?
Dang...I heard wrong

I still haven't figured out how to use my multipliers...I have never upped a stat by more than 3 when levelling up.

255 is the cap you can give yourself with cheats. Enchants can go beyond that though.

 

[My Arms Your Hearse]

While I haven't given Oblivion as much time as Morrowind, I definitely feel it's harder to max yourself in Oblivion than in Morrowind. The endgame of Morrowind was all about fast abuse. I could have a max character (literally, all skills and attributes at 100) in under a day due to potion & theft abuse (sans the skills without master trainers of course - I still can't believe they forgot about them in the retail version :lol ). That combined with the super jump / slowfall exploit made the game incredibly simple when you hit high levels. I was under the impression the devs at Bethesda really tried hard to prevent Oblivion from becoming the same.



yeah, ordinator + mudcrab merchant = easy money.

Well, especially as a Mage if you want to be cheap, you can max out in Oblivion in a few hours. Perhaps it isn't much harder in Morrowind, though with the increased number of levels and other issues, I'd have thought it would have taken longer (I rarely ever got farther in my numerous attempts to enjoy the game than the first town).

It isn't particularly hard at all to level a fighter either, and most of the sneak skills can be cheesed as well (sneak can be leveled to 100 pretty easily before you even leave the Imperial Sewers and Security is probably the most worthless skill in the game thanks to the Skeleton Key).

Perhaps I was wrong to compare the game to Morrowind, but the end result still feels the same. It should be much harder to max out... too much of the longevity of the game is derived from (imo) worthless quests that add little but irrelevant backstory.

 

[firex]

All right, my impressions of the general game so far (bear in mind I haven't even gotten far into the main quest yet, this is the first ES game I've owned, and I play the PC version since I don't have a 360):

It's so much better with mods. I use a mod that makes quest rewards scale with your level, so you don't feel ripped off for completing a quest at a low level (as the game currently gives scaled rewards). I'm also going to use one of the leveling mods (not a mod that makes you level insanely fast, a mod that changes the leveling system so you don't have to raise minor skills a shitload to get big stat bonuses on levelup) when I replay it as another character to address my problem with the way stat gains are done from levels.

I love the open-endedness of the game, the physics, and the Radiant AI. Being able to create a custom class that uses whatever combo of skills and specialization you want is wonderful. The AI isn't mindblowingly great, but it's smart when it comes to combat, and in general I just like how it works in responding to the player. Scaling enemies, and so on are a problem IMO, if you aren't basically getting optimal levels (+5 points to 3 stats per level), or if you level up a bunch at once (like I did early on with my custom class). But if you play through the game naturally and level just by naturally gaining some points in your major skills (as opposed to grinding them out), then I think the way equipment and such upgrades will feel more realistic, and it enhances the game (though I think it would then take a longass time to go through everything with one character, and try to hit max level as well).

Anyway, I love this game. It isn't my favorite PC RPG (that's still one of the older classics like Fallout or Planescape: Torment), but it's got a great feeling of player freedom, and a lot of dungeons to crawl through. Honestly, I wish that more of the side dungeons were larger. I haven't even done a lot of them, but the feeling of finding a dungeon and going into it to explore for a few hours is great.

I don't think the game's perfect, as there are still some balance issues (just IMO at least), such as stealthy characters having a hard time with the main quest, the mix of really good/really bad birthsigns, and the magic/spells being a bit poorly balanced in comparison to weapons (especially enchanted weapons), but it's not gamebreaking (though I still find the cap on magicka to be counterintuitive compared to endurance and health).

Still, I actually got this game because I knew Bethesda got the rights to Fallout, and I wanted to see if their version of an open-ended RPG could fit with the Fallout universe. And personally, I think it can, though I'd still want them to make some tweaks (a few cosmetic, others being core to the game like the ruleset for leveling and skills) I have no doubt they can actually make a faithful continuation of the Fallout series (at least technically).

 

[snaildog]

She's tilling rocks now! Woo!



Are you F**#$()*#@$UKING KIDDING ME!?

Spoiler

God, it's pretty obvious from what he and everyone else says that the guy is crazy. The quest being called Paranoia is a bit of a hint too.

 

[methodman]

Okay, people who are getting lock ups, are they happening always in the same place, or just randomly? This is my third random freeze of the day. Just fighting something and BAM X360 stops responding entirely. This is really getting annoying.

Yeah man my game freezes completely everytime i wake up from bed at this certain part. It's pissing me the fuck off. I havn't tried cleaning my disk yet, maybe that's the problem (i was checking the elderscrolls forums and they said you should clean your disk often for some fucked up reason). I never have to clean GRAW

 

[knitoe]

Need help with Thief Questline:

Spoiler

Think I am on one of the last quest. One where you have to sneak into Imperial Palace and steal Elder Scroll. Got to the point where you have to sit on the reading chair, and supposely, a blind monk will bring you the scroll. Well, I sat on the chair, a monk runs down the stairs, and nothing else happens. My char just sits there, think battle music plays, and can't get up or do anything. I must be missing something, but I don't know what it could be.

 

[EviLore]

Need help with Thief Questline:

Spoiler

Think I am on one of the last quest. One where you have to sneak into Imperial Palace and steal Elder Scroll. Got to the point where you have to sit on the reading chair, and supposely, a blind monk will bring you the scroll. Well, I sat on the chair, a monk runs down the stairs, and nothing else happens. My char just sits there, think battle music plays, and can't get up or do anything. I must be missing something, but I don't know what it could be.

Spoiler

The scroll is brought down by the monk and appears on the table, whereupon you take it. If the scroll doesn't appear on the table something's wrong, try loading a slightly earlier save if at all possible.

 

[gblues]

I'm wrapping up the

Spoiler

"Secure help for Bruma" quest

; could closing Oblivion gates be any more boring? Every town, it's "Waah, there's an evil Oblivion gate outside, go close it or NO TROOPS FOR YOU!" Yeah, well fuck you.

I can say this: I have closing the gate down to a science now:

- Figure out where the main tower is and get to it (sometimes easier said than done)
- Run like hell to the top and take the Sigil Stone
- Hold block and pray I don't get killed before the teleport kicks in to take me back to the real world.

And my fucking sword can't stay sharp for longer than 30 minutes. Nothing like fighting Flame Atronachs with a dull blade!

Lovin' the rest of it though.

Nathan

 

[syllogism]

I couldn't even sit on the chair so I reloaded and this time avoided being seen by guards and entered via the lower entrance. I suppose if battle music playing you were seen.

 

[syllogism]

I'm wrapping up the

Spoiler

"Secure help for Bruma" quest

; could closing Oblivion gates be any more boring? Every town, it's "Waah, there's an evil Oblivion gate outside, go close it or NO TROOPS FOR YOU!" Yeah, well fuck you.

Nathan

"Secure help for Bruma" is completely optional and those troops aren't necessary at all

 

[knitoe]

Spoiler

The scroll is brought down by the monk and appears on the table, whereupon you take it. If the scroll doesn't appear on the table something's wrong, try loading a slightly earlier save if at all possible.

Your right. Stupid bug. Had to use earlier saved.

 

[Waku]

Also stuck on a Thief Guild Quest:

Spoiler

The Mission were you have to steal the Ring from the Countess of Layewiin. She should be going to bed and put the Ring in her Jewelry Chest... but she never goes to sleep! I always find the Coutn in his bed alone and the Ring isn't in the Chest. Also ican't seem to find her if i just look around at night, except for one time were she was standing the WHOLE NIGHT just in front of the Throne Room.

So... any suggestions?

 

[Zensetsu]

Also stuck on a Thief Guild Quest:

Spoiler

The Mission were you have to steal the Ring from the Countess of Layewiin. She should be going to bed and put the Ring in her Jewelry Chest... but she never goes to sleep! I always find the Coutn in his bed alone and the Ring isn't in the Chest. Also ican't seem to find her if i just look around at night, except for one time were she was standing the WHOLE NIGHT just in front of the Throne Room.

So... any suggestions?

I had the same sort of problems,

Spoiler

the countess has a schedule where she visits other towns at certain times of the month...and her sleep schedule when she is home is fairly eratic....Once I crept in there at aroudn 3 in the morning and everyone was asleep, even the count...she was just standing around in their room. You just have to get lucky and catch her napping. (you can bribe her handmaiden for her travel schedule too I think)

Eventually I got it but it took a couple of tries, particularly since you can't use the accelerated "wait" while you are tresspassing.

 

[slayn]

My gamertag is Darkest Ancient. I don't know why you'd be interested. I have 3400 gamer points (that includes all 1000 from Oblivion).

You don't have to abuse anything, save perhaps for the training system, to reach level 30 in a day, especially as a melee class. Which is my preferred character type. I should clarify that "in a day" I literally mean a good 12-18 hours of playing. My melee character is at 35 hours played, is level 38, had done three faction quests and most of the mainquest (though the majority of the time has been spent spelunking). Several of those hours were the game just sitting there running. This was my second character, though, so I already knew the ropes.

My battlemage is at level 20 with about 10 hours played, a few of which have simply been me standing in a corner casting spells to boost my MINOR skills to 100. Armorer, Light Armor, Block, and Blunt absolutely skyrocket considering how low a High Elf's initial skill with them is, and destruction is pretty fast too.

The game is unrewarding to me because... it is. I never feel that I've accomplished much. It is simply too easy to dominate (even with the dial turned past default). There are no HUGE rewards for doing anything, most of the stuff is randomized (and shitty). While I didn't mention it earlier, mob variation is atrociously bad... but this isn't too much of a negative. There are very few quests with worthwhile rewards, and most of them tend to break the game or skills (Skeleton Key comes to mind... makes an entire skill completely worthless - and perhaps an even worse crime for a game such as this... kills the immersion when you can have a warrior with 2 skill in security be able to flawlessly pick any lock without ever having to worry about failure).

Again, completing 15093244 quests, in and of itself, means nothing to me. Most of those quests will not provide items to improve my character, and when they do, they're minimal at best.

I will say romping about Cyrodiil during a sunny day is probably the biggest pleasure the game has offered me, and was definitely worth the price of admission.

There is also, in my opinion, a shit ton of unneeded tedium, but that shoudn't be all that unexpected (at least there isn't as much as in Morrowind).

In the end, I like the game a lot, but after putting in a good 90 hours or so across 4 main characters and a bunch of test subjects... I don't feel that I've accomplished that much. Sure, I've done a lot of quests (not nearly all, though), but most of them didn't take longer than ten minutes once I arrived at the right location. It took me a fair bit longer to unlock the offline DOA4 accomplishments that I have unlocked than it did to get all 50 for Oblivion... that shouldn't be the case (it took, hmm, 3-4 days? I wasn't even actively trying to complete them quickly, though I do tend to do faction quests/arena pretty soon on any new character to build up cash).

I pretty much agree with all of that.

Some of the things that really bother me is that I don't feel like I'm really getting any more powerful and in addition to that, I don't feel like I need to.

I believe I have been using the exact same equipment on my character for something like the past 20 hours of playing. And thats only because I enchanted a bow when I got into the arcane university. Other than that, I've pretty much been using the same shit since the beginning. I did the dark brotherhood at the veyr beginning, and My current armor is still the dark brotherhood robes and hood.

I could probably find a much better helm than the db hood but I never remember to look for one because it is completely irrelevant to how well I do in battle.

Further, it is way too easy to completely break the combat in the game. Oh look, I've made 100% chameleon equipment, now no enemy in the game will ever attack me ever again...

and even without that the enemies simply do not move with enough intelligence. Ye old take a step back when they take a swing and miss works on pretty much every melee monster in the game.

A further problem is that the enemies scale to you so you never really get any indication of how powerful you are. You might go through a cave where you find a better sword and level up at the same time. Now when you fight your next battle you will feel pretty much the same. This makes that shiny new sword rather dissappointing.

I never even go into the random caves and dungeons anymore because I know there will never be any worthwhile treasure in them.

Generally I like to play rpgs to try to number crunch the system and tweak my character to be as perfect as possible. But in this I never notice any difference when I get higher stats or whatnot. And there seems to be no area in the game I could travel to to get my ass kicked such that it would compel me to create a more powerful character capable of dealing with that challenging area. Instead I've been playing the game for the bits of interesting story I can find and the occasional cool if still easy quest. My opinion of the game would probably be much, much lower if it weren't for the dark brotherhood.

I like the game, but probably no where near as much as a lot of other people in this thread.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Someone complaining becasue they can gimp the system and get their character to level 30 in a day probably shouldn't be playing this game anyway. For those of us actually enjoying it, there is no joy in "sitting in a corner casting spells" to max out your skills at 100. What's the point in that? Where's the fun? The Challenge? I mean, seriously, isn't it suppose to be about playing the game, exploring the world, completing the quests, both the main and side ones? Congratulations that you managed to find a way to power level your character and suck all the fun of the game. You're awesome!

And Revenant, perhaps you need an RPG that holds your hand every step of the way. Oblivion is more about choosing what you want to do, when you want to do it, and how you want to do it. It's about exploration, and having a huge, free playing, living world to wander around in. When given so much freedom, you don't seem to know what to do.

 

[slayn]

Someone complaining becasue they can gimp the system and get their character to level 30 in a day probably shouldn't be playing this game anyway. For those of us actually enjoying it, there is no joy in "sitting in a corner casting spells" to max out your skills at 100. What's the point in that? Where's the fun? The Challenge? I mean, seriously, isn't it suppose to be about playing the game, exploring the world, completing the quests, both the main and side ones? Congratulations that you managed to find a way to power level your character and suck all the fun of the game. You're awesome!

And Revenant, perhaps you need an RPG that holds your hand every step of the way. Oblivion is more about choosing what you want to do, when you want to do it, and how you want to do it. It's about exploration, and having a huge, free playing, living world to wander around in. When given so much freedom, you don't seem to know what to do.

it is simply a mark of imbalance in the system. It could probably even be easily fixed by having a rule somethign along the lines of:

minor skills can not be increased past 2*your current level

this would prevent easily getting to level 100 in minor skills until you are a high level, and further, this would push your major skills far more into the focus rather than being a jack of all trades.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

it is simply a mark of imbalance in the system. It could probably even be easily fixed by having a rule somethign along the lines of:

minor skills can not be increased past 2*your current level

this would prevent easily getting to level 100 in minor skills until you are a high level, and further, this would push your major skills far more into the focus rather than being a jack of all trades.

I don't disagree. But I still fail to see the fun of sitting in a corner casting a spell over and over again. That isn't fun to me, and I don't exploit the system because I want to play the game for fun. I feel the same way about someone posting much earlier in the thread on how he would get into sneak mode and tie a string around the trigger and let it go for several hours and come back with his skill complertely maxed. Not only do I not see the fun in it, I gain no satisfaction out of improving things on my own.

To each his own. Play it the way you like, but don't complain about not feeling a sense of satifaction, or having as much fun with the game, when you play like that. It falls into the same category as some exploit to get unlimited gold, which was discussed a few pages back as well.

 

[dammitmattt]

My gamertag is Darkest Ancient. I don't know why you'd be interested. I have 3400 gamer points (that includes all 1000 from Oblivion).

You don't have to abuse anything, save perhaps for the training system, to reach level 30 in a day, especially as a melee class. Which is my preferred character type. I should clarify that "in a day" I literally mean a good 12-18 hours of playing. My melee character is at 35 hours played, is level 38, had done three faction quests and most of the mainquest (though the majority of the time has been spent spelunking). Several of those hours were the game just sitting there running. This was my second character, though, so I already knew the ropes.

My battlemage is at level 20 with about 10 hours played, a few of which have simply been me standing in a corner casting spells to boost my MINOR skills to 100. Armorer, Light Armor, Block, and Blunt absolutely skyrocket considering how low a High Elf's initial skill with them is, and destruction is pretty fast too.

The game is unrewarding to me because... it is. I never feel that I've accomplished much. It is simply too easy to dominate (even with the dial turned past default). There are no HUGE rewards for doing anything, most of the stuff is randomized (and shitty). While I didn't mention it earlier, mob variation is atrociously bad... but this isn't too much of a negative. There are very few quests with worthwhile rewards, and most of them tend to break the game or skills (Skeleton Key comes to mind... makes an entire skill completely worthless - and perhaps an even worse crime for a game such as this... kills the immersion when you can have a warrior with 2 skill in security be able to flawlessly pick any lock without ever having to worry about failure).

Again, completing 15093244 quests, in and of itself, means nothing to me. Most of those quests will not provide items to improve my character, and when they do, they're minimal at best.

I will say romping about Cyrodiil during a sunny day is probably the biggest pleasure the game has offered me, and was definitely worth the price of admission.

There is also, in my opinion, a shit ton of unneeded tedium, but that shoudn't be all that unexpected (at least there isn't as much as in Morrowind).

In the end, I like the game a lot, but after putting in a good 90 hours or so across 4 main characters and a bunch of test subjects... I don't feel that I've accomplished that much. Sure, I've done a lot of quests (not nearly all, though), but most of them didn't take longer than ten minutes once I arrived at the right location. It took me a fair bit longer to unlock the offline DOA4 accomplishments that I have unlocked than it did to get all 50 for Oblivion... that shouldn't be the case (it took, hmm, 3-4 days? I wasn't even actively trying to complete them quickly, though I do tend to do faction quests/arena pretty soon on any new character to build up cash).

You have every right to your opinions, but I am still calling bullshit on some of what you say:

1. You say Oblivion has fewer quests and is less rewarding than Morrowind, but you by all accounts, you barely even played Morrowind! I was a huge Morrowind fan and played through it twice, but Oblivion really does almost everything better.

2. I still call bullshit on your leveling claims. There is no way to level that fast during normal play. I am a melee character with Blade, Athletics, Heavy Armor, Blunt, Hand to Hand, Restoration, and Destruction as major skills and and I am only going up a level once every two hours or so. If you wanted to game the system and you did nothing but jump from quest to quest, skip all non-quest conversations, only fast traveled, and created a custom class with easily levelable skills that you abused along the way, sure you could level like you claim. However, that is not the normal gameplay experience, and that is not the way that the game is meant to be played and is sure as hell not the way the game SHOULD be played.

3. You got 90 hours of enjoyable gameplay out of Oblivion! Why would you play something for 90 hours that was so unfulfilling? What other single-player RPG gives you that much enjoyment without having to replay the game? There aren't many.

 

[Xdrive05]

Okay, so I just got into the Arcane University and got an awesome staff. So now how exactly do I go about recharging my magical weapons now that I'm in?

 

[ChrisJames]

Someone complaining becasue they can gimp the system and get their character to level 30 in a day probably shouldn't be playing this game anyway. For those of us actually enjoying it, there is no joy in "sitting in a corner casting spells" to max out your skills at 100. What's the point in that? Where's the fun? The Challenge? I mean, seriously, isn't it suppose to be about playing the game, exploring the world, completing the quests, both the main and side ones? Congratulations that you managed to find a way to power level your character and suck all the fun of the game. You're awesome!

And Revenant, perhaps you need an RPG that holds your hand every step of the way. Oblivion is more about choosing what you want to do, when you want to do it, and how you want to do it. It's about exploration, and having a huge, free playing, living world to wander around in. When given so much freedom, you don't seem to know what to do.

Amen brother

I'm getting sick and tired of all these complaints about Oblivion. The fact is that it's a very compelling game that is amazing in every respect. It's a game that everyone will play differently and will have different opinions of and this is another reason that it's so good. And I couldn't disagree more with slayn regarding dungeon crawling being worthless. Exploring dungeons and caverns is one of the most fun things to do in the game and there is almost always some good treasure. Also, why has he been wearing the same armor/clothing for the past 20 hours? I keep finding new and better gauntlets, greaves, boots, etc.

 

[belgurdo]

Okay, so I just got into the Arcane University and got an awesome staff. So now how exactly do I go about recharging my magical weapons now that I'm in?

Soul Gems+soul trap spell, or talk to someone that can recharge your magic (look around)

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Okay, so I just got into the Arcane University and got an awesome staff. So now how exactly do I go about recharging my magical weapons now that I'm in?

There is a woman in the same building that you built your staff that can recharge it, or you can get it recharged in any guild hall. Just talk around, and there will be an option to charge it listed amongst the buttons at the bottom of the conversation where you would normally find barter or persuade options.

 

[MrPing1000]

I am retarded, started a new character used quick save and lost 3hours of progress on my elite assassin. Shit