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[Kung Fu Jedi]

Yeah, wow, these load times do seem unseasonably long.

Do they correct themselves after a few loads or are they consistently long?

 

[Kobold]

Just wondering - how much random exploration have you done? We've played the same amount of time, and I just completed the main quest, JUST jointed the thieve's guild, and am just now getting into the others. About 70 quests in, in total. But then half of my playtime has been clearing out random caves and ruins.

(have you done the Collector quest, BTW?)

I have that quest but didn't start that. I have all the sites covered though (flagged as visited on the map). So basically I've explored everywhere, but I've not randomly visited more then 5 dungeons or so. Only in quests and the like.

Actually:

Days passed 187
Quests completed: 130
Active quests: 13
Skill increases: 1028
Fame 103
Infamy 56
Items stolen: 16329 (wtf?)
Creatures killed: 3300
People killed: 417
Places found: 302
Locks picked 301
Oblivion gates shut: 2
Houses owned 3
Stores invested in: 0
Books read 464
Artifacts found: 12 ( I don't know what this means? May be related to the Collector quest..?)
Nirnroots found: 117

 

[GreekWolf]

Where's my epic dungeon? I was under the impression it would be released in early June.

 

[GhaleonEB]

I have that quest but didn't start that. I have all the sites covered though (flagged as visited on the map). So basically I've explored everywhere, but I've not randomly visited more then 5 dungeons or so. Only in quests and the like.

Actually:

Days passed 187
Quests completed: 130
Active quests: 13
Skill increases: 1028
Fame 103
Infamy 56
Items stolen: 16329 (wtf?)
Creatures killed: 3300
People killed: 417
Places found: 302
Locks picked 301
Oblivion gates shut: 2
Houses owned 3
Stores invested in: 0
Books read 464
Artifacts found: 12 ( I don't know what this means? May be related to the Collector quest..?)
Nirnroots found: 117

Artifacts are Oblivion Gate Sigil Stones, as well as Alyid Statues you find in those ruins. Which ARE related to the Collector quest.

And RE: bolded part - that's where we diverge. I've done over 60 random dungeons. I think I did ten of them before enen completing a single quest. :lol I just love exploring. I'm like a kid in a candy store in this game.

 

[Kobold]

Artifacts are Oblivion Gate Sigil Stones, as well as Alyid Statues you find in those ruins. Which ARE related to the Collector quest.

And RE: bolded part - that's where we diverge. I've done over 60 random dungeons. I think I did ten of them before enen completing a single quest. :lol I just love exploring. I'm like a kid in a candy store in this game.

Haha yea, but since you will have to revisit a lot of those for quests, I figured first finish those, to spare me the double work.

Also, I have no Alyid statues except for the first one that I sold, so I have no clue what artifacts they mean except for the two Sigil stones I have.

I'm getting the impression that after this patch, the general quality of the textures in my game has gone down dramatically. I have no clue if this is true or not, but that's what I'm 'feeling'.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Haha yea, but since you will have to revisit a lot of those for quests, I figured first finish those, to spare me the double work.

Also, I have no Alyid statues except for the first one that I sold, so I have no clue what artifacts they mean except for the two Sigil stones I have.

I'm getting the impression that after this patch, the general quality of the textures in my game has gone down dramatically. I have no clue if this is true or not, but that's what I'm 'feeling'.

I wonder if any of the Daedric items from the shrines count as artifacts. Not sure, those were the only two I knew of for sure.

Are you on the 360 version of the game or PC?

 

[Kobold]

I wonder if any of the Daedric items from the shrines count as artifacts. Not sure, those were the only two I knew of for sure.

Are you on the 360 version of the game or PC?

360 version. Hey that figures, I guess those items could be artifacts!

I'm now infiltrating the Mythic Dawn, soon to start swinging the Chorrol Honorblade in utter rage, of course.

 

[professor_t]

Do they correct themselves after a few loads or are they consistently long?

I just got the patch and haven't had any problems with extra long load times. Maybe I'm just lucky?

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I just got the patch and haven't had any problems with extra long load times. Maybe I'm just lucky?

Good to know! I'll patch mine later, and hope everything goes well. I wouldn't mind seeing a performance increase as some have talked about.

 

[C4Lukins]

Do they correct themselves after a few loads or are they consistently long?

I'm still having problems. I'm also having the sound cutout which never happened before. My game has been acting a little strange though for the past few weeks, freezing every couple of hours, but the load times were never a problem. I have tried resetting the game 3 or 4 times, but it isn't helping. I would say every other loading screen is taking two to three times longer then it did before the patch, but sometimes it is perfectly fine. I'm kind of worried that this is the first indication that my 360 is about to kick the bucket, but Oblvion is the only game giving me any trouble. As I said though, strangely enough the framerate is a lot better.

 

[Vark]

I'm still having problems. I'm also having the sound cutout which never happened before. My game has been acting a little strange though for the past few weeks, freezing every couple of hours, but the load times were never a problem. I have tried resetting the game 3 or 4 times, but it isn't helping. I would say every other loading screen is taking two to three times longer then it did before the patch, but sometimes it is perfectly fine. I'm kind of worried that this is the first indication that my 360 is about to kick the bucket, but Oblvion is the only game giving me any trouble. As I said though, strangely enough the framerate is a lot better.

Have you cleared your utility partition? (IE, held down A while the system is booting) You know it worked if the 360 logo takes longer than usual.

 

[bengraven]

holy crap that was the EXACT quest. :lol I found the

Spoiler

main guy from the castle but not his two companions.

I'm floored you got it from my descritpion.:lol

I'm PSYCHIC! :lol Or

Spoiler

the more I think about it, the grass around Skingrad (and Chorrol, too) seems to be the longest in the game. And that mission is the only mission I can think of where you have to kill someone out there in the grass. So that's probably why we both were screwed by that quest

. BUT STILL! I'm AMAZING! :lol

I'm not involved in the patch. All I know is what's in the release notes.

Can you, like, go up to someone who worked on the patch and aggressively poke them on the shoulder until they answer the question? Because I'm terribly curious, too.

So far, 120+ hours into the game, 48 of 50 achievements, at the end of the main quest

Spoiler

mission right before the Great Gate, closed all of the city gates and now I'm going for that "Dragon Armor" set

, all sidequests done but the Collector

Spoiler

I can't find a statue

and a couple of "Settlement Quests" that I didn't even know existed until I peeked at the strat guide (bad, I know), one or two Daedra quests left. Going to do the Master Trainer quests out of boredom when I'm done just to feel 100% completed. Probably rob a lot of people, kill a lot of others.

Then I restart with new character! I'm a male thief/swordfighter right now, but I may make a Goth chick mage/blunt weapons character for fun! And then maybe a Khajiit or Argonian! And then maybe just get a character of every race on my HDD!

 

[professor_t]

I'm still having problems. I'm also having the sound cutout which never happened before. My game has been acting a little strange though for the past few weeks, freezing every couple of hours, but the load times were never a problem. I have tried resetting the game 3 or 4 times, but it isn't helping. I would say every other loading screen is taking two to three times longer then it did before the patch, but sometimes it is perfectly fine. I'm kind of worried that this is the first indication that my 360 is about to kick the bucket, but Oblvion is the only game giving me any trouble. As I said though, strangely enough the framerate is a lot better.

I don't want to alarm you, but I really haven't been having those problems after installing the patch. Granted, I haven't had freezing problems, either, but I'm not sure if I ever play for more than an hour at a time.

I definitely think the game is running more smoothly, and I have yet to receive any of those "loading" messages as I traverse non-city terrain. I also just hooked up one of those Nyko Intercoolers, which could explain the improved performance, but I doubt it.

 

[C4Lukins]

Have you cleared your utility partition? (IE, held down A while the system is booting) You know it worked if the 360 logo takes longer than usual.

I have tried it before. What is the exact way to do it? Should I hold A as soon as I start up the 360, or wait for the controller to stop blinking before I press A? Also, when should I let go of the button?

 

[GhaleonEB]

I have tried it before. What is the exact way to do it? Should I hold A as soon as I start up the 360, or wait for the controller to stop blinking beofre I press A?

I've read that you need to wait until the controller has booted up (ie only the one quarter of the guide button is lit solid) and then hold it down through to the title screen. However, I've done this many, many times and never found it to make any difference whatsoever. YMMV.

 

[SteveMeister]

I have tried it before. What is the exact way to do it? Should I hold A as soon as I start up the 360, or wait for the controller to stop blinking before I press A? Also, when should I let go of the button?

If you're really unsure, just connect the controller to one of the USB ports (assuming you have the play & charge cable). That way you don't have to wait for the controller to synch up first.

 

[C4Lukins]

If you're really unsure, just connect the controller to one of the USB ports (assuming you have the play & charge cable). That way you don't have to wait for the controller to synch up first.

Ok, good news, everything is working great now. What I did exactly just for information purposes. I had the 360 booting automatically to dashboard initially, that didn't seem to help with holding the A button down, and I wouldn't get that long cycle with the 360 logo. I plugged the controller into the USB port, and I made it boot directly to the disk, then held A when the upper left corner of the controller became solid, this did not help either. The last time I booted it up, and just held the A button immediatly, it seemed to fix the problems.

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[SteveMeister]

Ok, good news, everything is working great now. What I did exactly just for information purposes. I had the 360 booting automatically to dashboard initially, that didn't seem to help with holding the A button down, and I wouldn't get that long cycle with the 360 logo. I plugged the controller into the USB port, and I made it boot directly to the disk, then held A when the upper left corner of the controller became solid, this did not help either. The last time I booted it up, and just held the A button immediatly, it seemed to fix the problems.

Thanks everyone for the help.

Excellent! Glad to hear it

It looks like booting directly to dashboard bypasses clearing the cache, which I suppose makes sense since you're not actually loading the game. Good to know.

 

[raYne]

Just got a chance to dl the patch and it doesn't fix already bugged quests at all. So my Siren's Quest is still incomplete... blah.

To echo someone else's first loading impressions, it was pretty bad when I first booted up. No it didn't take minutes to load anything, but it definitely took much longer than I'm used to. The drive sounded like it was working overtime as well. I could actually hear it after the first load while I was just running around outside... tshktshktshktshktshktshktshk. I found myself wondering if I would have to deal with this forever. Blaming Vark personally of course...

Then after the third transitional load I couldn't hear it anymore, and the loading times went back to the usual amount. So I decided to head back out to where the drive was making all the noise. Whisper quiet as before! ...and it doesn't load as much while you're outside either.

Still, I'm disappointed with the apparently unfixable quest bug... but it's a good update. I'll play some more later on so see all the other changes.

 

[GhaleonEB]

*I found, in the middle of a big grassy plain, a goblin sitting down with his back against a barrel. In his hand was a bottle of "Cheap Wine", and a BIG pile of them next to him. He was dead, and had this huge grin on his face. He died happy. It was totally random and wonderful.

*The game does a great job of giving the impression that you have an impact on the game world through your quests. Characters talking about recent quests and their outcome ("The incident at Desolate Mine...."), random chatter about recent events, etc. Very immersive. For the next ES game I'd like to see that taken to the next level: having your actions outside of quests impact the game world. Nothing huge, but say if I murder some character in their sleep, the Black Horse Currier puts out a bulliten saying so-and-so was found dead in their house. Guards would spend more of their watch the next few days in that area. You get the idea. Probably very hard to pull off but it would rock so hard. I've robbed entire neighborhoods blind and no one notices, but when I steal an object for a quest, it's the talk of the town. A bulliten goes out when I kill someone for a DB quest, but murdering a half-dozen people in town is unreported.

*The downloads so far are not what I thought would be added to the game after it shipped. It's all individual quests and locations. I'd pay for a pack that adds different content to the game. Say, a pack of a half-dozen new enemies added to the game world, scaled to your level. Or a pack of 20 new ingredients scattered around (flowers, etc.) which can create new potions. Or a weapon pack with new classes of weapons (spears, etc.). Something that impacts the game in a more broad way than one side quest.

*I love the smack-talk that enemies put out when you are fighting them. I swear theyy try to put on a bold face right before you kill them. "Is that the best you can do?" just as I'm winding up for a power blow that takes them down and launches them accross a room. Fun stuff. Things like that keep the combat fun for me.

*I don't like how some of the skills ramp up. Take Destruction spells. I've had a 20pt fireball spell since my Destruction skill 25 that I can use, back when I had a level 10 character. Now that I'm level 33, it's nearly worthless. The next best one is a 70pt spell, which would come in handy. But you have to be level 75 to cast it. I have not found anything in between those two, and the result is a HUGE gap where I have to force myself to use weak spells just to level the skill. I have several spells in every discipline that require level 75, and everything below is just pitiful at this point. As a result I'm doing almost all melee and bow combat, since most spells are worthless and it's a chore to level them.

That's today's random thoughts.

 

[SteveMeister]

I've had a 20pt fireball spell since my Destruction skill 25 that I can use, back when I had a level 10 character. Now that I'm level 33, it's nearly worthless. The next best one is a 70pt spell, which would come in handy. But you have to be level 75 to cast it. I have not found anything in between those two, and the result is a HUGE gap where I have to force myself to use weak spells just to level the skill.

Make new spells that are in between.

 

[xabre]

*The downloads so far are not what I thought would be added to the game after it shipped. It's all individual quests and locations.

Quite right. I'm not buying anything else until they stop offering novelty items and start offering more useful things like new weapon and armour sets and artwork, new items such as ingredients, new enemies, new skills like blacksmithing etc.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Make new spells that are in between.

I *just* joined the Mage's guild. I didn't know you could do that until just recently. :lol

 

[SteveMeister]

I *just* joined the Mage's guild. I didn't know you could do that until just recently. :lol

Yep, once you get all your recommendations you have access to spellmaking and enchanting altars. You also get a couple with the Wizard's Tower plug-in, with no guild requirements.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Yep, once you get all your recommendations you have access to spellmaking and enchanting altars. You also get a couple with the Wizard's Tower plug-in, with no guild requirements.

I might have joined sooner (120 hours in :lol ) had I not gotten booted out for stealing (still not exactly sure what I stole) and had to go flower picking. That took a good 30-40 hours right there.

Man. I missed out on so much by not knowing I could do things. Selling Varla Stones, carrying around Sigil stones en masse, delaying joining the Mage's guild. Talk about doing it the hard way.

 

[bill0527]

Downloaded the patch and I've tried twice to enter the Fighter's Guild in Skingrad and my 360 has locked up both times. I've got a launch 360 and I've never had a game lock up on me at all.

I'll try it again later and see if its still happening.

 

[siamesedreamer]

Hey, what did the patch do?

(Did it corret the infinty gold piece glitch?)

 

[siamesedreamer]

Holy shit at the new load times. They were acceptable before, but now they're downright ridiculous. Good grief.

 

[SnakeXs]

Holy shit at the new load times. They were acceptable before, but now they're downright ridiculous. Good grief.

It's because the patch forces round polygons. :lol

 

[siamesedreamer]

Easy now.......I don't know shit about how games are made. I just play them and complain when they're not made properly. :lol

 

[GhaleonEB]

Yeah, my load times have exploded as well. I'm still in the city so I'm not sure if traveling by foot is better outdoors now. I've had about five sound cutouts as well (people talking, but no sound); I think I had about two of those total so far. I suppose if it fixes a bunch of bugged quests I have not done yet it's for the best, but I can't help but feel like the patch wasn't all good for the game.

I really need to find the book "the cleansing of the fane" for the

Spoiler

Collector's Quest

. Someone mentioned it was in the

Spoiler

Arcane University

bookstore, but I have not found it there. It was not at First Edition either. I've googled it and found nothing. Anyone know?

Edit:

Found it! I like to do good chunks of quests on foot, so I was going to head to the ruin from

Spoiler

Cheydinhal.

On a whim I stopped by the bookstore and they had it. Off to the ruins. *hums Indiana Jones theme*

 

[raYne]

It's never at the Arcane University. If it's not at First Edition (Imperial City) where it should be, then look in Mach-na's bookstore in Cheydinhal.

 

[Tunesmith]

360 version. Hey that figures, I guess those items could be artifacts!

I'm now infiltrating the Mythic Dawn, soon to start swinging the Chorrol Honorblade in utter rage, of course.

I love that sword, have had it since level 5 (now 27) :lol, no weight and has a nice damage.

Spoiler

and you dont even loose it with all your other items in the Mythic Dawn shrine because it's a bound quest item!

On another note, I've never found any of those artifact statues that you can sell to initiate the collectors quest. Does the quest start if I sell a Oblivion sigil stone too?

 

[Do The Mario]

Patch FTW!

I think people just stopped playing oblivion and forgot how long the loading times are

I am now free of Vampirism!

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

I love that sword, have had it since level 5 (now 27) :lol, no weight and has a nice damage.

Spoiler

and you dont even loose it with all your other items in the Mythic Dawn shrine because it's a bound quest item!

On another note, I've never found any of those artifact statues that you can sell to initiate the collectors quest. Does the quest start if I sell a Oblivion sigil stone too?

There's a ton of those ruins in an arc between Chorrol and Chedynhal out towards the edge of the map up in the mountains. Some nice dungeon design work with them too; and very Vampire-infested.

 

[GhaleonEB]

There's a ton of those ruins in an arc between Chorrol and Chedynhal out towards the edge of the map up in the mountains. Some nice dungeon design work with them too; and very Vampire-infested.

Yup. Remember, they are only in Alyid (sp?) ruins. Focus on those until you find one. I'm a ways into the questline (techincally two quests so far....but it may as well be a half dozen) - this thing is EPIC and very fun.

 

[super-heated plasma]

Help me, Stevemeister. You're my only hope.

I thought the 360 patch was supposed to fix the fighters guild quest "Mystery at Harluns Watch"

The body is STILL not in the cave. Do I have to start a whole new game to get the quest to function properly?

I have an earlier save from before I started that quest, but I would lose 14 levels and alot of nice gear. I'd rather do neither and keep playing with my level 25 character.

 

[Do The Mario]

Help me, Stevemeister. You're my only hope.

I thought the 360 patch was supposed to fix the fighters guild quest "Mystery at Harluns Watch"

The body is STILL not in the cave. Do I have to start a whole new game to get the quest to function properly?

I have an earlier save from before I started that quest, but I would lose 14 levels and alot of nice gear. I'd rather do neither and keep playing with my level 25 character.

Yeah I am expelled from the fighter guild ATM due to another quest, but I went into harluns watch because I still have the quest and there was no book.

 

[Dr Zhivago]

360 patch has greatly improved the outdoor framerate for me, also fixed the Clavicus Vile crash. Loading times seem about the same.

 

[Wollan]

Loading times are like 5 times longer in my case. Took well over a minute loading a 20square meter house. What the hell did they do?

 

[Tek]

Help me, Stevemeister. You're my only hope.

I thought the 360 patch was supposed to fix the fighters guild quest "Mystery at Harluns Watch"

The body is STILL not in the cave. Do I have to start a whole new game to get the quest to function properly?

I have an earlier save from before I started that quest, but I would lose 14 levels and alot of nice gear. I'd rather do neither and keep playing with my level 25 character.

I'm in the same boat. I actually stopped playing because I was waiting on this patch....Then it doesnt even fix what I was waiting for.....

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Anyone who is having long loads post patch should clear your cache. If you read this page, and a few posts up, you'll see that this has helped some other people, and is recommended by Steve.

As for me, the patch has been awesome. Load times are about the same, but the frame rate has gone up very nicely, and I have yet to come across a "Loading..." message while roaming the countryside. I'm not sure what they did, but Bethesda used a little of their voodoo to coax the 360 to load everything up very nicely.

Major kudos to the team Steve and Vark. I know you guys didn't do the patch, but still, I'm very happy. Even though I'm closing in on finishing up all the major quest stuff in the game, this patch is probably going to extend the life of the game for me even further, just on the fact that it's so nice just walkinga round in the world now. I'm going to have to give horse back riding another try.

 

[SteveMeister]

Help me, Stevemeister. You're my only hope.

I thought the 360 patch was supposed to fix the fighters guild quest "Mystery at Harluns Watch"

The body is STILL not in the cave. Do I have to start a whole new game to get the quest to function properly?

I have an earlier save from before I started that quest, but I would lose 14 levels and alot of nice gear. I'd rather do neither and keep playing with my level 25 character.

The fixes prevent the quest breaks from happening -- but once it's broken in your game save, in some cases it's nearly impossible to correct with a patch, because the bad data is in your save game. The only way you can proceed with that quest is to load an earlier save or start over, I'm afraid.

 

[Nerevar]

load times went down for me. Especially my initial load - before the patch it was taking a good minute and a half to two minutes to load the game, now it's under a minute. Loads within the gameworld are faster too.

Framerate seems to be more stable too.

 

[Tek]

The fixes prevent the quest breaks from happening -- but once it's broken in your game save, it's nearly impossible to correct with a patch, because the bad data is in your save game. The only way you can proceed with that quest is to load an earlier save or start over, I'm afraid.

I have no idea when I went into that cave....I'm over 100 hours...starting over is unlikely...guess I finish up the main quest and trade it in.

 

[SteveMeister]

You could always start a new character and JUST focus on the quest line you were unable to complete. Especially at early levels, the game plays entirely different with different character types. If you were a fighter type before, you could try a more stealthy character or a magic user. There are different birthsigns, different races, lots of options.

 

[Diseased Yak]

Same here, load times haven't gone up and in some cases seem to have gone down, but the biggest thing is the improved framerate outdoors. Wow! Nice job guys.

On the negative side, it locked up hard on me while I was trying to punch a bandit to death. It's never locked up totally like that when not in a loading screen (lots of lock-ups there).

Sucks about the FG quest though, but I was wanting to start a new character anyway pretty soon. I'm having trouble finding more quests to do with my level 44 vampire orc.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

level 44 vampire orc.

That is one scary combination right there! :lol

 

[TheWolf]

the patch is worth it for getting rid of the "now loading" screen.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

the patch is worth it for getting rid of the "now loading" screen.

Agreed. I'm so impressed with how smooth it runs now. "Performance Tuning" indeed!