Support NeoGAF

[raYne]

I haven't bothered to try to calculate it, but for the most part it is. A single heavy ingredient can affect the weight value of the entire potion.

Same with creating potions using a higher number of ingredients.

 

[Nerevar]

I haven't bothered to try to calculate it, but for the most part it is. A single heavy ingredient can affect the weight value of the entire potion.

Same with creating potions using a higher number of ingredients.

whoa, apparently it's a bug.

I've attained master level in Alchemy quite some time ago, and I
noticed that when I create a potion, any other potion with the same
name and effects will take on the first potion's weight.

For example - I create a potion of Restore Health, that has a restore
4 health, for 18 sec. I do this by using one Cairn Bolete cap (0.1#)
first. Now, I can take the heavier, more useless items such as Daedra
Hearts (2.0#), and Boar Meat (2.0#), and when I create potions with
them, they get grouped into the 0.1# potion collection . A very
nice way of reducing weight of stuff I'm carrying, especially when
making restore fatigue potions with pumpkins and watermelons.

This works in reverse as well - if I create a restore fatigue potion
with a pumpkin first, any other restore fatigues that have the same
characteristics will weigh 5.0#.

I only mention this at Master level since it's difficult to control
the numbers when your alchemy skill is going up (every time you level
it, it may increase the duration or strength).

or maybe it's a feature. :lol Regardless, use this as a lesson, always make your potion with the lightest ingredients possible first, then all other potions will have that same weight.

 

[StRaNgE]

i have been walking around the emperial city for an hour, walked around the water outside the city and then walked around inside the city.

where the hell is this cheap house?

this game is huge, blows my mind i spent an hour just walking around the outside of the gates by the water, then how huge the sewers under the city are.

killed a vampire.

sorta wish i realized he was one so he could turn me into one. (are there benifits )


ok, so where is the house, the slum?

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

The house is in the Water Front district. If you fast travel to there, you start off on the docks. Go behind the brick walls/buildings and head East. You'll see several little shacks. Search around, one of them is for sale.

 

[GhaleonEB]

i have been walking around the emperial city for an hour, walked around the water outside the city and then walked around inside the city.

where the hell is this cheap house?

this game is huge, blows my mind i spent an hour just walking around the outside of the gates by the water, then how huge the sewers under the city are.

killed a vampire.

sorta wish i realized he was one so he could turn me into one. (are there benifits )


ok, so where is the house, the slum?

To buy it I think you need to go to the Market district, to the government building there. You can buy it from there.

I was a vampire. I hated, hated, hated it and the quest to get cured took me over 15 hours. Not. Suggested.

 

[Archaix]

i have been walking around the emperial city for an hour, walked around the water outside the city and then walked around inside the city.

where the hell is this cheap house?

this game is huge, blows my mind i spent an hour just walking around the outside of the gates by the water, then how huge the sewers under the city are.

killed a vampire.

sorta wish i realized he was one so he could turn me into one. (are there benifits )


ok, so where is the house, the slum?

The house itself is in the waterfront, you have to buy it in the market district.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

To be fair, there are some people who really enjoy playing as a vampire. (I'm not one of them). It does bring on some fairly nice benefits with added abilities and increased stats. But you can only travel at night, sunlight will cause damage, and many of the NPC's will not have anything to do with you. Feeding will cause you to revert back to a more normal state for awhile though.

 

[siamesedreamer]

OK, is there a place to find out what all the symbols mean?

I fought this catlike dude and he hit me a couple of times with his sword. Ever since then I've had this symbol to the right of my compass on the bottom of my screen. It looks like a half moon with an arrow pointing up and some eyelash like lines extending out from it. I've looked in the guide and the manual and there doesn't seem to be any place that says exactly what each symbol means. I'm assuming the catlike dude did something to my standing and I haven't taken the necessary potions or whatever to get rid of it.

Can anyone help?

 

[Xdrive05]

For nVidia users, be sure to check out the 91.28 beta drivers for this game. I got about a 30% performance increase in addition to image quality, which is huge especially during the forest sections where I used to get like only 17fps.

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_rel70betadriver.html

It features a new U.I. for the control panel too.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

OK, is there a place to find out what all the symbols mean?

I fought this catlike dude and he hit me a couple of times with his sword. Ever since then I've had this symbol to the right of my compass on the bottom of my screen. It looks like a half moon with an arrow pointing up and some eyelash like lines extending out from it. I've looked in the guide and the manual and there doesn't seem to be any place that says exactly what each symbol means. I'm assuming the catlike dude did something to my standing and I haven't taken the necessary potions or whatever to get rid of it.

Can anyone help?

Dude! You leveled up! Go rest in a bed so you can get the benefits. Then wait for that symbol to appear again, and then level up again!

 

[siamesedreamer]

:lol

OK, preeche.....

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

:lol

OK, preeche.....

In the interest of full disclosue, I wondered what the hell that symbol was at first too! :lol

 

[GhaleonEB]

I leveld three times before I knew to take a nap....

 

[ShutEye]

Okay, I think I've figured out alchemy, thanks again to everyone with advice. And my luck penalty disappeared. Goodness knows how I got rid of it.

One more question:

I was fooling around and found an obelisk that bound weapons to me (a nasty looking dagger and gauntlet). Why and what do they do?

 

[GhaleonEB]

Okay, I think I've figured out alchemy, thanks again to everyone with advice. And my luck penalty disappeared. Goodness knows how I got rid of it.

One more question:

I was fooling around and found an obelisk that bound weapons to me (a nasty looking dagger and gauntlet). Why and what do they do?

Those demonstones or whatever just grant you temporary powers. The bound weapons are usually very powerful; I usually hit one right before doing a cave.

 

[raYne]

I was fooling around and found an obelisk that bound weapons to me (a nasty looking dagger and gauntlet). Why and what do they do?

As in outside in the middle of nowhere? Nothing special. You'll just have access to a higher level armor/weapon for a limited time. I guess it'd be usefull if one were just starting out (ie to you). You'll also keep your stats up while wearing it. The heavy armor won't slow you down for instance.

There are a bunch of them scattered all over the place and you can only use them at night (and also once per "obelisk" for the night). Also, if you sheathe the weapon you get, you'll lose it.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I never really found those stones to be of much help after the first few levels. The conjured dagger is not all that great when you start to level up and get better gear for yourself, and from what I can tell, they weren't any better than the Conjure Daedric Dagger spells.

 

[Nerevar]

I never really found those stones to be of much help after the first few levels. The conjured dagger is not all that great when you start to level up and get better gear for yourself, and from what I can tell, they weren't any better than the Conjure Daedric Dagger spells.

I'm pretty sure they were exactly the same.

I found them useful up into the early teens - one of them near Skingrad gave you a daedric claymore which is one of the stronger swords in the game.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I found them useful up into the early teens - one of them near Skingrad gave you a daedric claymore which is one of the stronger swords in the game.

Oh! Cool! I never found anything other than the dagger and a wicked pair of gaunlets. Gave up looking after that. Yeah, a claymore would have been much nicer.

 

[Nerevar]

Oh! Cool! I never found anything other than the dagger and a wicked pair of gaunlets. Gave up looking after that. Yeah, a claymore would have been much nicer.

yeah, I remember using it for a quest for one of the guilds (fighters maybe?) of some sort where I had to clear out a cave full of undead. It was the most hectic dungeon run I ever did. I didn't stop to pick anything up - I just went from room to room taking out undead with my badass huge daedric sword. My timer ran out literally seconds after I cleaned out the last of the undead, very rewarding :lol

Man this game is awesome.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Man this game is awesome.

Agreed! Many of us are a couple of months into playing and we're still learning and finding new things in the game. I think there are still plenty of secrets to uncover as well.

 

[GhaleonEB]

yeah, I remember using it for a quest for one of the guilds (fighters maybe?) of some sort where I had to clear out a cave full of undead. It was the most hectic dungeon run I ever did. I didn't stop to pick anything up - I just went from room to room taking out undead with my badass huge daedric sword. My timer ran out literally seconds after I cleaned out the last of the undead, very rewarding :lol

Man this game is awesome.

I think the weapons it grants you scale to your level. That runestone still grants me a claymore, but it's 31 damage - 3pts higher than the best sword I've found in the game. Seems like it keep about that far ahead as I level. I've always found them usefull.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I think the weapons it grants you scale to your level. That runestone still grants me a claymore, but it's 31 damage - 3pts higher than the best sword I've found in the game. Seems like it keep about that far ahead as I level. I've always found them usefull.

Ahh..that might explain it. I stopped using them fairly early on, so I haven't seen anything really good from the stones. May have to drop by one to see what I get tonight when I play.

 

[PhatSaqs]

Seems i've run into my first quest bug

Spoiler

So i've killed Umbra & got her sword. But after giving it to Clavicus Vile the game locks up shortly after. It doesnt matter whether I give the sword or tell him no either as the game locks up regardless.

Anyone else have this happen?

 

[raYne]

Anyone else have this happen?

Yeah, I posted in the thread before that it locked up on me after both choices as well. I think it happened to someone else here too. Though I must admit that I wasn't really trying to get around it, since I was already planning to keep it.

33 damage + 6x sneak attack!

 

[GhaleonEB]

A question about the sneak attacks - it seems like at random my sneak attacks alternate between 1x and 6x damage (3x for arrows). Why the difference? Can I do anything to guarantee a 6x damage? I've gotten my tail kicked recently thinking I'm sneaking up for a massive knockout blow only to do 1x.

Also - do arrows do regional damage, ie headshots inflict more damage?

 

[raYne]

A question about the sneak attacks - it seems like at random my sneak attacks alternate between 1x and 6x damage (3x for arrows). Why the difference? Can I do anything to guarantee a 6x damage? I've gotten my tail kicked recently thinking I'm sneaking up for a massive knockout blow only to do 1x.

Also - do arrows do regional damage, ie headshots inflict more damage?

Certain weapons guarantee certain multiplications (once the related skills are leveled).

For example, you'll start out with 1x sneak but that will go up to 2x, 3x, 4x or 6x. Also:
-two handed swords such as Claymores give no sneak bonus (as far as I know).*
-one handed swords give a 6x max.*
-hand to hand gives a 6x max
-bows give a 3x max. etc

Nope, no regional damage from any attacks.



* I assume the same for blunt weapons, but I don't use 'em.

 

[Kal]

I'm want to buy Oblivion next week but I'm not sure if it will run well on my notebook; I have a Asus W3J with Intel Core Duo T2400 (1.83 GHz), 1024 MB of RAM(533MHz) and an ATi Mobility Radeon X1600 GPU (256MB dedicated, 512MB Hypermemory) and a 1280 x 768 screen. I'm able to play Half-Life 2(awesome game) with high setings and get very good frame rates (full AA, AF) What kind of frame rates will I be getting (in Oblivion) on medium settings? Does it still look good on medium settings? Can someone with similar settings make a screen grab so I can see what it looks like? Should I buy it now or wait till I can afford an Xbox 360(maybe in about four months time)?

 

[GhaleonEB]

Certain weapons guarantee certain multiplications (once the related skills are leveled).

For example, you'll start out with 1x sneak but that will go up to 2x, 3x, 4x or 6x. Also:
-two handed swords such as Claymores give no sneak bonus (as far as I know).*
-one handed swords give a 6x max.*
-hand to hand gives a 6x max
-bows give a 3x max. etc

Nope, no regional damage from any attacks.

* I assume the same for blunt weapons, but I don't use 'em.

Ah, thanks. I'll do some testing with my longsword.

 

[GhaleonEB]

You know, I think it's really cool that people in the game will comment on various side-quests that you have completed. For example, I did the Fighter's Guild mission at Desolate Mine. The one where you deliver weapons to three NPCs and then help them clear out the goblins. Sadly, one of the three didn't make it. So it was pretty cool when one of the NPCs told me that the "thing at Desolate Mine didn't go too well. Apparantly there were casualties."

It stopped being cool the 50th time someone, on the OTHER SIDE OF THE MAP, told me it didn't go so well. Actually, it went fine. What happened was Tweedle Dee decided to run out in front of me and trigger a tripwire, causing a half-dozen logs to land on him. I was going to carefully trigger it and back up, but no, Dumbo decided to try and catch them like this dude, and with just as much success.

So the "incident at Desolate Mine" went great! The mission was successful and Doofus got weeded out of the gene pool, hopefully before he could spawn and pass on his drooling chromosomes. Now I just wish everyone would stop talking about the moron!

 

[GhaleonEB]

Well, all this talk of alchemy got me going on it. I just spent over an hour mixing potions. I leveled high enough to see all four ingredients, then spent another half hour mixing even more new ones - hundreds in all. Most just for fun (okay to sell), but lots and lots of usefull stuff.

I just went into the shop in town to sell them. The game has crashed at the loading screen. So over an hour and a half of mixing potions and leveling my alchemy down the toilet because the game crashed.

Fuck.

where the fuck is the patch?

It's getting to the point where I don't want to play anymore - I'm having crashes/freezes nearly every day now. We're talking dozens of lost play hours piling up. I have this increasing feeling of despair every time I play, hoping to God it does not crash like it just did.

 

[SnakeXs]

Well, all this talk of alchemy got me going on it. I just spent over an hour mixing potions. I leveled high enough to see all four ingredients, then spent another half hour mixing even more new ones - hundreds in all. Most just for fun (okay to sell), but lots and lots of usefull stuff.

I just went into the shop in town to sell them. The game has crashed at the loading screen. So over an hour and a half of mixing potions and leveling my alchemy down the toilet because the game crashed.

Fuck.

where the fuck is the patch?

It's getting to the point where I don't want to play anymore - I'm having crashes/freezes nearly every day now. We're talking dozens of lost play hours piling up. I have this increasing feeling of despair every time I play, hoping to God it does not crash like it just did.

Ouch. Sorry man.

And, I actually have been having great luck lately... No crashes in a looong time, and it's been loading super fast lately, as well. =[

That said, where is a patch? DLC has been released, and not even a word on a pretty large/common problem? =\

 

[raYne]

It's getting to the point where I don't want to play anymore - I'm having crashes/freezes nearly every day now. We're talking dozens of lost play hours piling up. I have this increasing feeling of despair every time I play, hoping to God it does not crash like it just did.

Shouldn't you know you should be saving periodically by now? Having read your previous posts, it's not like you don't know it's gonna freeze on you at some point.

It's funny though... its getting worse for you, but better for me. I used to have at least one loading freeze almost daily when the game was released (kept the remote real close by), but I haven't had a single freeze in well over three weeks.

Still, I make it a point to save both periodically and after anything eventful. There's no reason why you should be playing for over an hour and not save at least twice.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I'm want to buy Oblivion next week but I'm not sure if it will run well on my notebook; I have a Asus W3J with Intel Core Duo T2400 (1.83 GHz), 1024 MB of RAM(533MHz) and an ATi Mobility Radeon X1600 GPU (256MB dedicated, 512MB Hypermemory) and a 1280 x 768 screen. I'm able to play Half-Life 2(awesome game) with high setings and get very good frame rates (full AA, AF) What kind of frame rates will I be getting (in Oblivion) on medium settings? Does it still look good on medium settings? Can someone with similar settings make a screen grab so I can see what it looks like? Should I buy it now or wait till I can afford an Xbox 360(maybe in about four months time)?

Kal: Your computer should run the game just fine. That's a pretty hot laptop you've got there.

 

[xabre]

Not saving is just asking for trouble. I save after every enemy I kill.

 

[teiresias]

Since we're giving out performance estimates on Oblivion, how about my rig, what should I expect. Ideally I'd want to run the game at 1280x720. What kind of eye candy compromises would I need with the rig below for that? What would i need to disable or what settings would I need to use?

NF7-S Mobo
AthlonXP-M @ 2.2Mhz
1G PC3200 RAM
Sapphire X800GTO 256MB
On-board soundstorm audio

 

[xabre]

What would i need to disable

Polygons.

or what settings would I need to use?

The 'don't use any textures' option.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I've actually been very lucky with the game. I've only had it lock up on me three or four times total.

However, last night I did have some weird bug issues that in the end, worked in my favor. I was doing a dark brotherhood quest, the one where you have to kill the family members, and after killing one of them, I got a message that I was kicked out of the thieves guild for killing someone while on the job. Now, if you'll recall from a previous post, I had a bugged thieves guild quest that I couldn't complete, so I just went on with the DB quests. I've even killed quite a few people while doing those quests, and never got this message. But, I figured I wouldn't worry about it since I couldn't advance the thieves guild quests anyway.

So, I proceed to the Imperial City to kill another member of the family, and in so doing, I get a bounty on my head. I can't fast travel to the next location with guards pursuing me, so I decide to take off on foot, but never once do I see these guards in pursuit. I tried fast travel a few times and I kept getting the same message.

I continue on my way to Lleyawin to get my next vicitim for the DB quest, but stop in Bravil along the way to see Skreeva from the Thieves Guild. She tells me that I can play the "Blood Price" and get back in the guild, which I decide to do so I can remove my bounty. So 2000 gold later, I'm back in the good graces of the thieves guild, and pay my bounty of 20 gold as well. Then she says she is happy that I have returned and she can now give me the long overdue promotion. I get promoted, and the next thieves guild quest opens up for me, which means I'm no longer stuck on the bugged quest I had before. Woo hoo!

I'm happy that I can proceed, but I want to finish the dark brotherhood first, so I exit the building and try to fast travel, but no luck. The game says I'm still being pursued, even though my bounty is gone. I continue to travel by foot, find and kill my next vicitim, but do it in a public way that then gets me arrested, I go to jail, do my time, and upon release, everything is fine. I can now fast travel again, and I'm back in the thieves guild and past the bugged quest so I can finish those quests too. After all the bugs and frustration, everything worked out, and I'm in better shape then when I started!

 

[Xdrive05]

Since we're giving out performance estimates on Oblivion, how about my rig, what should I expect. Ideally I'd want to run the game at 1280x720. What kind of eye candy compromises would I need with the rig below for that? What would i need to disable or what settings would I need to use?

NF7-S Mobo
AthlonXP-M @ 2.2Mhz
1G PC3200 RAM
Sapphire X800GTO 256MB
On-board soundstorm audio

I have the same exact computer, except for my mobile is at about 2.5 and I'm using a 6800GT @ ultra speeds, and I run it at 1280x720 like a dream. Highest settings, except no AA, HDR is on, etc. I average 52fps and I usually get higher indoors. Outdoors it's usually about 26-40fps, depending on whether i'm in the heavy forest, and it has at times even dropped below 20fps if there's a lot onscreen in the middle of the woods. Of course, that's 100% playable for a game like Oblivion. But yeah, the indoors and town stuff is running a lot faster than the 360 version, with that version edging ahead a bit in the woods, I've found.

And this is with a few PC mods to make it look even better (like getting rid of the soup textures). Hope that helps.

 

[gsarjeant]

Not saving is just asking for trouble. I save after every enemy I kill.

I agree completely. I also saved before opening any door. I hate losing progress, no matter how trivial.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I save regularly, but not as much as you guys do. I'd say I save about every 10 to 15 minutes most of the time, and then again after any major quest/event. As I said earlier, I've probably only had the game lock up three or four times on me, but I just don't like to take any chance.

I also tend to alternate between saves. I usually have three saves and an autosave and alternate which slot I use. I have a paranoid fear of corrupt saves from other games I've played over the years! :lol

 

[bengraven]

Well, it's nice to see the thread still kicking. I've taken over a week off after the game crashed on me 3 times in one hour. 120+ hours in, it gets irritating. It's been nice, though, re-watching Seasons 1 and 2 of Deadwood, bought Burnout Revenge (eh...*shrugs*), but I'm getting excited to get back into Oblivion again.

And it's sad that there's not really anything with depth coming out for a very long time (I think Prey will be the only 360 game I buy all summer). Any news on a full expansion?

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

No news on an expansion yet, but I'm sure we'll see at least one or two expansions. I agree with you on the lack of Summer games. Oblivion will probably get me through the Summer until Madden comes out. I am getting the itch for some GRAW again as well, so I'm in pretty good shape.

It says a lot about the depth of a game when it's all you've played for over two months, and you're not bored yet, plus you keep finding new things to do. I'm done with the Main Quest, Arena Quests, Fighters Guild, and Mage Guild. I'm halfway through the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guilds. After that, I have plenty of dungeons to explore, side quests to complete, and large sections of the World Map that need filling in. Still have plenty to do in Oblivion!

 

[Diseased Yak]

Check it out, next DLC preview is up. Looks like we're up to a $3 price-point. Hopefully that means a much larger download than the Thieve's Den was. Not knocking the 'Den, though, it's very nice.

http://obliviondownloads.com/Coming_Soon_DLC9.aspx

EDIT - Love this pic:

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Hmm...this new download looks pretty nice. They list it as the "largest dungeon" in the game, so I hope that means it's huge, and epic in scale. If the quest is long, challenging, and the dungeon is well done, I might grab this download. And I haven't purchased any of the other content so far.

 

[GhaleonEB]

It would be awesome if they added new monsters as well.

Shouldn't you know you should be saving periodically by now? Having read your previous posts, it's not like you don't know it's gonna freeze on you at some point.

It's funny though... its getting worse for you, but better for me. I used to have at least one loading freeze almost daily when the game was released (kept the remote real close by), but I haven't had a single freeze in well over three weeks.

Still, I make it a point to save both periodically and after anything eventful. There's no reason why you should be playing for over an hour and not save at least twice.

I do save pretty often, and the autosaves help. But I spent the whole time in the menu to make potions, then just wanted to walk from one building to the next. I was planning on saving after sold all the stuff. (Side note - I sold off all my alchemy stuff and ingredients for over 7k in gold. At least I got something out of it all.)

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

It would be awesome if they added new monsters as well.

I'd like to see this too, but they would probably just be variations of those we already have. The size of the download would go up quite a bit if they had to pack in new models, sounds, animations, etc. I wish they'd actually add dragons to the game though. That would be sweet!

 

[raYne]

I wish they'd actually add dragons to the game though. That would be sweet!

But... there are dragons.

 

[GhaleonEB]

One downside to the leveling system is that if you spend lots of time doing random dungeons, like me, then you end up doing most of the main quest and even side-quests pretty high level. What that translates to is that you don't see new monsters for a VERY large proportion of the game. I don't think I've seen anything new for a good 25 hours or so, and I'm starting to really focus on quest lines just now. It's all just the same skeletons, trolls, bandits, etc. over and over, just more powerful. I'm only 65 quests into the game, and I'm at level 28.

I do wish weaker enemies were kept in the mix. For example, I no longer see Flame or Frost Astronochs (sp?) at all. The latter I only fought a couple of, since I went a long spell without doing any Oblivion gates. They basically jumped from Flame to Storm for me. It would be more interesting to run into a strong ememy flanked by a couple of weak ones now and again, rather than three ginormous bad guys in every room. Just for variety.

But... there are dragons.

Oooooh - maybe I wrote too soon...:eek

 

[raYne]

Yeah, you'll lose Flame Astaroths altogether once your level is high enough (unless you personally use a summon spell of course). Frost Astaroths will still be around however.

Oooooh - maybe I wrote too soon...:eek