I commonly click into 3rd person when traveling on foot over long distances, and when exploring towns. I also tend to stay in 3rd person if I run across a minor baddie that'll go down in a couple swipes.
E3 put a crimp in my Oblivion time, but I got back to it over the weekend. I'm mainly focusing on the main quest at the moment, as I'm doing the allies for Bruma quest. I've decided to close gates for each of the cities, even though it isn't necessary, just so I can have every town be in debted to my character and call me the "Hero of Kavatch", "Hero of Bruma", etc. Although the Plane of Oblivion has gotten a bit stale, they've done a good job of changing up the objectives in these gates. Sometimes you have to scale different towers to open bridges to the main tower for instance, or open iron gates that lead to the Portal towers.
At the moment, I'm about 92 hours in, and at level 36 or 37. After I finisht he main quest, I intend to focus on the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood as well as the various side quests I still have haning out there.
That review is hilarious, though the be fair the vast majority of the reviews on GameFAQs are positive.
Still, I have to admit a fair number of people who I know personally that are younger, console and Final Fantasy-centric RPG fans have been utterly baffled by it and think it "sucks" because of all that unfair stuff like level scaling, and the lack of epic CGI battles and summon spells and stuff...
Oh, yeah, I was actually just checking to see how Oblivion faired with the kids and was surprised at all the great reviews. To be honest, almost all are either 9 or 10. I saw the "2" though and had to read. It's funny, I honestly think the kid didn't play and was just reading information on web forums.
And yeah, this game would never work in Japan, which is sad. Maybe make an anime flavored version with CGI cutscenes and a tragic love interest? :lol
I'm getting into a good groove now. I'm finding enough caves/ruins/Gates to explore on the way to each quest (that takes place in the wilderness) that I'm doing 1-2 now for every few quests. Still a huge amount of fun. Finding a badass new weapon is still a thrill.
30 hours in and I just got to the painter's quest... amazing. In a weird way I thought I had seen everything the game had, or at least had an good idea of things, but that was beautiful and awesome.
Do you guys immediately enchant things with the stones you get from beating the oblivion gates, or do you save them up? I'm undecided on what's a good strategy. I also just learned about poisoning your weapons, that would have come in useful earlier.
30 hours in and I just got to the painter's quest... amazing. In a weird way I thought I had seen everything the game had, or at least had an good idea of things, but that was beautiful and awesome.
Do you guys immediately enchant things with the stones you get from beating the oblivion gates, or do you save them up? I'm undecided on what's a good strategy. I also just learned about poisoning your weapons, that would have come in useful earlier.
You don't even need an alter to use them. Highlight the stone you want to use... click it, and it'll ask you which item you want to use the properties on.
Also, you get more powerful stones later on in the game and the stone's properties are random. Meaning you can save right before you grab the stone at the end of the gate and see what properties it has. If you don't like it, you can reload your file and grab the stone again. It'll have different properties. Repeat process...
You don't even need an alter to use them. Highlight the stone you want to use... click it, and it'll ask you which item you want to use the properties on.
Also, you get more powerful stones later on in the game and the stone's properties are random. Meaning you can save right before you grab the stone at the end of the gate and see what properties it has. If you don't like it, you can reload your file and grab the stone again. It'll have different properties. Repeat process...
I've discovered a bug/flaw/exploit/whatever you want to call it, particularly relating to the Shrine of Sanguine quest.
I'll point out the bug, then tell you how you can exploit it.
bug: When you cast a spell that hits a distant target, the actual "crime" isn't committed until the spell actually hits its target. Because the AI lacks any sort of real, functioning memory, if you can make yourself invisibe before the item strikes its target, the target will still freak out but no one will identify you as the person casting the spell / shooting the arrow / etc. This generally isn't possible by casting the spell "invisible", because the arrows / spell bolts travel pretty fast, but drinking a potion of invisibility is instant. Thus, if you fire off a spell or an arrow, then go to your inventory and drink a potion of inivisibility, you can have that item affect it's target without ever getting a bounty, no matter how many people saw you casting.
exploit:
In the shrine of sanguine quest, you're supposed to cast a "stark reality" spell that disrobes everyone and takes away all their items - even yours. Because it happens in a small room with no hiding space and everyone facing eachother, you're pretty much guaranteed to get a pretty high bounty and then have to escape and get it resolved somehow, which is a HUGE pain in the ass due to all the guards chasing you. However, using the above exploit, just cast the spell then quickly drink an invisibility pot. Everyone will lose their clothes and equipment, even you, but since you're invisible no one will identify you and you won't get the bounty. At that point, feel free to waltz out of the castle and return to Sanguine. Cheap, but much easier than trying to escape an entire contingent of guards chasing you down.
Yeah! Explained above, but my dark elf is freezing the tits off people thanks to that. Also, maybe you already know this, but I just found it out: you can select poisons and then apply them to your weapons, 1 use per hit.
There are spellmaking and enchanting alters. You need to be a member of the arcane university to use them. Or you can use them if you have the Wizard's Tower download.
Hmm. Well, I guess I'm done. Fun game; I mean, I put in just shy of ninety hours on my lv34 character. But I guess it's just too unstable to finish. Even with the patch the game seems to crash every minute or so in the last gate. :\
As purgeface explained, I'm talking about the enchantment alters, not regular alters that you find everywhere.
Crazymoogle said:
Hmm. Well, I guess I'm done. Fun game; I mean, I put in just shy of ninety hours on my lv34 character. But I guess it's just too unstable to finish. Even with the patch the game seems to crash every minute or so in the last gate. :\
PC version? In which case, I'd say that it's not the game's fault.
I've been on my downward spiral for a while now.. a bit over 150 hours will do that to you. Hell, I haven't even played that much at all over the last couple weeks. Still, I manage to find something to do (non-quest related) everytime I boot it up so I'm not quite done completely with it.
Yeah I'm kinda done. I'd still like to fight Umbra and find the other Arena (if it exists), but I'll probably do that in a few years when I'm craving some Oblivion again.
Yeah I'm kinda done. I'd still like to fight Umbra and find the other Arena (if it exists), but I'll probably do that in a few years when I'm craving some Oblivion again.
I'm not done just yet. Plenty to see and do yet. Working on the main qeust now, then it's thieves guild and dark brotherhood. After that, there are plenty of side quests I can still do, but at that point, I'll probably be able to play some other games again.
There are spellmaking and enchanting alters. You need to be a member of the arcane university to use them. Or you can use them if you have the Wizard's Tower download.
thanks, and thanks to raYne... I'm not done with the mage guild quests yet so I can't get into the arcane university, I guess I'll figure it out when I get access.
I think you have to go through a gauntlet of ~10 guys, all increasing in power. I ended up with three killer swords, two new bows and some spectacular arrows. (Fire damage +65 in a 20' raidus - BOOM).
I'm still using one of the swords, 5 levels later.
Ghost said:
Yeah the other arena is good but when i did it
The last guy fell off a bridge into some lava before i even got to him
I think you have to go through a gauntlet of ~10 guys, all increasing in power. I ended up with three killer swords, two new bows and some spectacular arrows. (Fire damage +65 in a 20' raidus - BOOM).
I'm still using one of the swords, 5 levels later.
That happened to the second guy I fought. I thought it was great until I realized
How do you figure? I mean, clearly something about the game is not behaving with the rest of my hardware, but the last gate takes the crash rate from once every 3 hours to once every 45-60 seconds. With or without the patch. I guess it could be a 3D card thing but I'm not seeing a whole lot of difference between oblivion gate realms.
Anyway, I'm sure it will clear up someday...just may take a few patches to do it. Just as well, I suppose; didn't really have any quests left to do that I could find.
I think you have to go through a gauntlet of ~10 guys, all increasing in power. I ended up with three killer swords, two new bows and some spectacular arrows. (Fire damage +65 in a 20' raidus - BOOM).
I'm still using one of the swords, 5 levels later.
That happened to the second guy I fought. I thought it was great until I realized
Not sure where to put the spoiler tag, so i'll use it freely.
That is, indeed, one awesome quest. It wasn't that hard for me, because
i found a Greater Staff of Fire that deals 80 damage on hit
, so i kinda spammed it on that quest.
Another thing i'm glad is that i made a TON of
feather potions
. At a given point, i was using 5 of them and
was able to carry 1100 of loot. So i stole everything from the arena. Too bad there wasn't many things usable, except from the kickass dude with a shitload of arrows.
I just found the guy in the swamp waaaaaay down south that I'm supposed to take out for the Dark Brotherhood side quest.
I took him up on his offer to spare his life, and looked for the other Argonian, but I couldn't find him. I spent ten minutes mapping the place out in a spiral. I figured, if he REALLY wanted to live he would have taken me to the body and said, "here take this dude's heart, not mine." As it is I got a heart AND his gold. But it didn't work out so well for him.
I'm off to battle Umbra tomorrow. I googled her location to remind myself of which dungeon she's in. She absolutely handed my ass to me about 15 levels ago but now I'm out for revenge. I just cleared out a necromancer's den and have a TON of killer scrolls - 120pts shock damage, 100pts fire damage, etc. About 15 in all. She's going DOWN. Unfortunately that's a long ways away so I'll hoof it over there tomorrow night and take her out. (I'm still refusing to use fast-travel.)
I used one of the stones to enchant a weapon. The only one I had handy already had an enchantment on it, but I tried anyways. The stone just replaced the enchantment already there, which is fine with me. I wanted the name to be descriptive, but clever. I got the first part right. It's called Freeze-Mace. Guess what it does! I'm looking for a good hammer to name the Ban-Hammer. I can see myself using that just for the name.
After Umbra I'm off to advance the main story a bit more.
I just found the location of the Mystic Dawn in the Elven Gardens.
I'll advance that a few notches, finish up my open Dark Brotherhood quest (
need to fake a killing
), close an optional Oblivion Gate or two and then finally join the Theive's Guild. I've been putting that one off since I think it will be the most fun.
I'm 88 hours in and feel like I'm just now really getting started. I'm not even in the Acadamy yet, only 3 quests into the Fighter's Guild and only 5 quests into the Dark Brotherhood. And I think the main quest is still in its infancy.
Jesus there's so much to do in this game.
BTW - what's this "Collector's Quest" everyone is talking about? It sounds epic but I have not found it yet.
I got to the Great Gate last night, and the game froze on me once when I tried to enter it, and then after a re-boot, it froze on me again once I got inside, and tried to save my progress. I'm hoping this isn't going to be a major deal trying to finish it up. I'm going to clear my cache tonight when I boot up, then give it another shot.
GhaleonEB: The Collectors Quest is epic. To trigger it
You need to sell of one of those Alyied statues you find in their ruins. I got my first one in the first dungeon I saw after exiting the prison way back at the beginning of the game. Sold if off for like 200 gold, and shortly there after I was visited by a messenger who invited me to meet with his boss back in the Imperial City. From there, the quest begins. Go talk to him, and he'll get things started for you. It's a fairly long quest line, lots of dungeons to explore, and an Indiana Jones vibe to it, especially near the end.
was there every any word about a possible PS3 version of Oblivion? I know that was a hot rumor right before E3, but I haven't heard a peep about it since. What gives?
was there every any word about a possible PS3 version of Oblivion? I know that was a hot rumor right before E3, but I haven't heard a peep about it since. What gives?
I got to the Great Gate last night, and the game froze on me once when I tried to enter it, and then after a re-boot, it froze on me again once I got inside, and tried to save my progress. I'm hoping this isn't going to be a major deal trying to finish it up. I'm going to clear my cache tonight when I boot up, then give it another shot.
GhaleonEB: The Collectors Quest is epic. To trigger it
You need to sell of one of those Alyied statues you find in their ruins. I got my first one in the first dungeon I saw after exiting the prison way back at the beginning of the game. Sold if off for like 200 gold, and shortly there after I was visited by a messenger who invited me to meet with his boss back in the Imperial City. From there, the quest begins. Go talk to him, and he'll get things started for you. It's a fairly long quest line, lots of dungeons to explore, and an Indiana Jones vibe to it, especially near the end.
Hmmm, what statues? I've done tons of those ruins but I don't think I found any. Then again on my stats page is lists three "Artifacts" I've found, but I'm not sure what those are. I've only got 75 bazillion items on hand. :lol
was there every any word about a possible PS3 version of Oblivion? I know that was a hot rumor right before E3, but I haven't heard a peep about it since. What gives?
So at level 44 I just completed the main quest, after doing all the big sidequests (all guilds, Collector, etc. etc.). Just wanted to say how
completely awesome the big dragon vs. Dagon battle at the end was!! My jaw was dropped the whole time! Now I just need to hang around for 2 weeks and get my dragon armor. I think now, too, that I will become a vampire and try to find more quests to do. For one, I need to finish the Shadowbanish Wine quest...
Hmmm, what statues? I've done tons of those ruins but I don't think I found any. Then again on my stats page is lists three "Artifacts" I've found, but I'm not sure what those are. I've only got 75 bazillion items on hand. :lol
I'm going to have a mod ready soon. Two quests, dungeons, various new locations and items, a couple houses, and hopefully voiced NPCs.
Anyone want to beta test it for bugs/balancing, etc... without the voices? It kind of sucks because the length of time the dialogue stays on screen is tied to the length of the voice samples, so without them the text only displays for a couple seconds.
I'm pretty sure they are Ayleid Statues or something to that effect. Certainly don't look anything like the Varya or Welkyand stones. They look like some fairly abstract piece of art, and all of them i've found were on pedestals. I think they list out at about 1000 gold in value.
The first one I found, as I said earlier, was in those Ayleid ruins that are across the water right after you exit the Prison when you start the game. The ruins had bandits on the upper levels, and a necromancer and undead on the lower levels.
Although the Plane of Oblivion has gotten a bit stale, they've done a good job of changing up the objectives in these gates. Sometimes you have to scale different towers to open bridges to the main tower for instance, or open iron gates that lead to the Portal towers.
