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[slayn]

silver weapons/arrows will also work on ghosts and such.

I dunno how magic damage and such is determined though. I really, really wish it showed exact numbers in combat. I am a huge fan of bioware's games where I can even turn on the to hit rolls etc. I like to be able to see the exact equations being used for everything.

 

[Unison]

Hand to hand combat rocks in Oblivion. I chased a deer into a lake last night and beat its ass.

How possible is it to get through the game only using your fisticuffs though?

Are there Daedric Gauntlets or something that let you damage creatures that can only be hurt by magic / magical weapons?

 

[FlyinJ]

Strangely enough, the game went from ridiculously hard from levels 11-18 to almost a complete cakewalk now at 22.

I found a ring of 100% frost resist and another of 100% shock resist... and I'm already 90% fire resist. Now no spells damage me at all. It's almost become boring to play the game. I'm considering throwing one of the rings away.

The cool thing is I can literally stand by the ocean and wing the ring into it.

 

[Dr_Cogent]

Hand to hand combat rocks in Oblivion. I chased a deer into a lake last night and beat its ass.

Oh you think your hot shit for kicking an unarmed dear's ass? :lol

Yes, combat does rock in this game. The animations are cool. Reminds me of Condemned in a way how your perspective can get wobbly and shit when you get hit.

 

[GreekWolf]

Strangely enough, the game went from ridiculously hard from levels 11-18 to almost a complete cakewalk now at 22.

Yup, just like the book says.

At first, I was kind of worried that you could just keep building your character up, and would never see any "payoff" like you did in Morrowind. Fighting a challenging enemy is fun and exciting, but at some point, you want to feel like a god... someone who can just kick the shit out of anything that dares cross your path.

I'm finally starting to feel that demi-god status in my 20's. I can melee anything now, no problemo. Wolves, bears and goblins run from me. But there's still a few daedra princes and poltergeists that can turn me into hamburger meat, if I don't plan my battles carefully.

 

[GreekWolf]

I did that quest just last night myself. Was great. I was level 12 though and it was really easy because I mostly use the bow and all the enemies in this quest have a slow movement rate compared to me.

Did you find the hidden quest in the Pale Pass valley?

I stumbled across it by accident, and have decided to go ahead and

Spoiler

use the secret note to find the wizard's ring before heading back to Bruma. I doubt I'll ever be back to that location again, so I might as well hunt around for it before leaving.

 

[Tunesmith]

Yup, just like the book says.

At first, I was kind of worried that you could just keep building your character up, and would never see any "payoff" like you did in Morrowind. Fighting a challenging enemy is fun and exciting, but at some point, you want to feel like a god... someone who can just kick the shit out of anything that dares cross your path.

I'm finally starting to feel that demi-god status in my 20's. I can melee anything now, no problemo. Wolves, bears and goblins run from me. But there's still a few daedra princes and poltergeists that can turn me into hamburger meat, if I don't plan my battles carefully.

With the difficulty slider 75% to the right I can beat everything to death with little to no trouble at level 9.
I've started soley using bows now to make things interesting. :lol

 

[EekTheKat]

Well despite the fact that March has been absolutely MURDER on my backlog, I picked up the 360 version a while ago - and yeah it's pretty damn good for an RPG

The first thing this game reminded me of is Ultima really, where you play in a heavily simulated world instead of an uber linear scripted one. After like...6 hours I finally got out of the sewers since I kept trying out different classes + custom combinations (finally I had settled on a custom classed Cat guy (freebie nightvision rocks):lol

So now I'm running around the world with a Ninja Cat, having a blast just sneaking around + playing sniper on unsuspecting people. There's something about the whole archery system in this game that makes it oh so satisfying when you take someone down from long range with a bow.

\

 

[slayn]

Did you find the hidden quest in the Pale Pass valley?

I stumbled across it by accident, and have decided to go ahead and

Spoiler

use the secret note to find the wizard's ring before heading back to Bruma. I doubt I'll ever be back to that location again, so I might as well hunt around for it before leaving.

I must have completely missed this. Now I have to go back there and start searching >_<

 

[GreekWolf]

With the difficulty slider 75% to the right I can beat everything to death with little to no trouble at level 9.
I've started soley using bows now to make things interesting. :lol

Level 9 was the weaksauce for me. Go into Oblivion at level 12 and try to shut the first gate with the difficulty at 175%, and I'll give you some props.

Heck, if you can do it at level 12 on the default settings, I'll give you props.

 

[rahxephon03x]

Does anyone know where to buy lock pick?

I had a couple of them but then I gave my equipment away when I was infiltrating the cult to get the amulet back. Can't find my equipment

 

[slayn]

guilds that you would expect to make use of lock picks will sell their members said lockpicks

 

[GreekWolf]

I must have completely missed this. Now I have to go back there and start searching >_<

I'll give you a small hint, because otherwise, you might be wandering around for days -

Spoiler

To the right of the ruins, look for a barrell sticking out of the ice. That'll jump start the quest.

Good luck

 

[FlyinJ]

Does anyone know where to buy lock pick?

I had a couple of them but then I gave my equipment away when I was infiltrating the cult to get the amulet back. Can't find my equipment

Where your gear is:

Spoiler

There are two named characters in that cult quest dungeon. The guy with the mohawk is the one who has all your stuff. Kill him and loot his corpse.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

guilds that you would expect to make use of lock picks will sell their members said lockpicks

well said!

 

[Nerevar]

I don't get why the level scaling was an all-or-nothing thing? They couldn't just have monsters/bandits/random enemies scale, and have things like the arena made to be a certain level of difficulty?

This is a good point, and I think it warrants repeating. I don't like how everything scales with you in terms of level. I'd rather that certain quest-specific things remained static in difficulty, whereas random encounters leveled. (Actually, I'd rather there were no levels at all, and you were entirely based on raising skills - and enemies strengthened / weakened based on those skills, but that's another story). As it is, I feel that the game is absurdly easy at lower levels, and then scales awkwardly beyond that (almost like a bell curve of difficulty).

 

[rahxephon03x]

Thanks

 

[slayn]

This is a good point, and I think it warrants repeating. I don't like how everything scales with you in terms of level. I'd rather that certain quest-specific things remained static in difficulty, whereas random encounters leveled. (Actually, I'd rather there were no levels at all, and you were entirely based on raising skills - and enemies strengthened / weakened based on those skills, but that's another story). As it is, I feel that the game is absurdly easy at lower levels, and then scales awkwardly beyond that (almost like a bell curve of difficulty).

I definitely agree with this, and if you check out the mod scene there are a *lot* of mods that are trying to fix this.

a couple I've come across but not tried:
arena is static and no longer scales
there was a mod that completely removed the entire concept of sleeping to level. Instead, every time you increased a skill, the attribute tied to that skill automatically increased (by .5 if major skill, .25 if minor skill) and your 'level' I think was based on some equation of the skills you had increased.
there are a couple mods out there that simply slow the progression of your level
probably hordes more.

The one that sounded most intriguing to me was the one that completely removed the idea of leveling up and adding to attributes based on multipliers but to use that patch requires that you start your character over.

 

[Eel O'Brian]

I need the fonts (or something close to them) used in the question and response lists that pop up for your character. Can anyone help me out?

 

[Confidence Man]

I'm kind of wishing I got the PC version now, even if I had to run it at lower settings. :/

 

[MrToughPants]

M'raaj-Dar the Khajiit vendor in the Dark Brotherhood reminds me of Antonio Baneras as Puss n Boots in Shrek 2. And he won't stop calling me house cat. :lol

 

[GreekWolf]

This is a good point, and I think it warrants repeating. I don't like how everything scales with you in terms of level. I'd rather that certain quest-specific things remained static in difficulty, whereas random encounters leveled. (Actually, I'd rather there were no levels at all, and you were entirely based on raising skills - and enemies strengthened / weakened based on those skills, but that's another story). As it is, I feel that the game is absurdly easy at lower levels, and then scales awkwardly beyond that (almost like a bell curve of difficulty).

Again, according to the guide, only 5 monsters in the game will continue to scale as you gain levels throughout the game.

Here is a direct quote -

In general, creatures are NOT leveled to you. If you see an Ancient Ghost, you know that it is level 9 and has 170 hit points, no matter if you encounter it at level 9 or at level 29. Instead, the game provides you with a challenge by pulling creatures from a list - as you rise in level, you will encounter higher-level creatures ( although you will continue to see lower-level creatures as well ). The exceptions to that rule are the top-level creatures of each creature type, which increase in strength with you to continue to provide a challenge for your high-level character.

Hope that helps.

 

[MrPing1000]

Go to the rightmost screen in the magic menu. It lists all effects on you. Find what is draining your stats, and use whatever to get over it. I'm not 100% sure about this but Restore potions only work on magic drains, not poisons/disease/whatever.

If you go to the magic page in your journal and click on the right most tab you can see exactly what is effecting all your stats and abilities and to what amount.

Thanks, I'm diseased, Helljoint. Need to get myself a disease cure potion then

 

[slayn]

Again, according to the guide, only 5 monsters in the game will continue to scale as you gain levels throughout the game.

Here is a direct quote -


Hope that helps.

I was not aware of that. Perhaps everyone is getting mislead by the arena? Because the arena seems to scale pretty drastically.

Even so, its still the game leveling with you. Just by monster slection rather than monster level. I definitely like the challenge of it, the game should level with you. But I personally think the game should be broken more into areas of different degrees of danger.

Say, the areas around towns will have wild life that scales with you but never really gets beyond a pretty tough wolf. Whereas if you start venturing out into the wildernass you should be able to, even if you are level 1, find an ogre that will step on you, scrape you off its foot on a nearby rock, and continue on its way.

similarly, I would, being a stealthy assassin, prefer the idea of venturing into territory that should be *way* too difficult for me, sneaking past monsters that can kill me in one hit, grabbing loot scaled to the difficulty of those monsters and not my dinky character, and run like hell praying to make it out alive with my new found treasure. But, as is as I understand it, no matter what dungeon I go to in the game all the enemies (and non unique treasure) will be comparable to me.

 

[ChrisJames]

Does anyone else think it would be tits if this game had an online arena mode? You could have tournaments, tag team, and 1 on 1 matches and anyone could watch and bet on the competitors. I just thought of this in the shower and it seemed like an excellent idea.

 

[Confidence Man]

Again, according to the guide, only 5 monsters in the game will continue to scale as you gain levels throughout the game.

Here is a direct quote -


Hope that helps.

It's not so much the monsters as it is the quests and items. You really have no need to improve your character to advance through the game, which is kind of a strange thing.

 

[TemplaerDude]

Is it necessary for Oblivion to open all these freaking FFD Audioshows on my computer? They slow my game down like hell. It'll go really nice to begin with, but it'll slowly get worse and worse as it apparently opens more of them. Is this necessary? Do I have to deal with it? It's really annoying.

 

[Victrix]

Finally finished the main story at level 37... think I'm going to start a new character now I've barely scratched the surface of this game, after playing it for a week straight, it's insanely, crazy huge

 

[Son of Godzilla]

Did you find the hidden quest in the Pale Pass valley?

I stumbled across it by accident, and have decided to go ahead and

Spoiler

use the secret note to find the wizard's ring before heading back to Bruma. I doubt I'll ever be back to that location again, so I might as well hunt around for it before leaving.

Heh so thats what that forgotten chest is for? I found it but it needed a damn key :/

 

[GreekWolf]

Say, the areas around towns will have wild life that scales with you but never really gets beyond a pretty tough wolf. Whereas if you start venturing out into the wildernass you should be able to, even if you are level 1, find an ogre that will step on you, scrape you off its foot on a nearby rock, and continue on its way.

I actually like that idea and agree that it would seem more realistic, but it's also very MMORPG like, which is probably what Bethesda was trying to stay away from.

I can sort of of understand their logic - If you had an area of the world that was only populated by low level rats, bats, and beetles then you'd probably never return to that location once your character became stronger. I mean.. what would the point be? It's like the hunting/training grounds in Everquest. You never see a level 40 player still hanging around the n00b levels and slaying level 1 rats.

There are so many dungeons and quests scattered around the countryside, that they want you to take the time to venture out and explore the world, uncovering new locations. And just speaking for myself, I'm much more likely to poke around an area that has a hint of danger to it.... because with tougher monsters comes phat lewts.

 

[Pimpbaa]

Is it necessary for Oblivion to open all these freaking FFD Audioshows on my computer? They slow my game down like hell. It'll go really nice to begin with, but it'll slowly get worse and worse as it apparently opens more of them. Is this necessary? Do I have to deal with it? It's really annoying.

The game really doesn't like ffdshow. I had to uninstall it because it kept crashing the game on me. Don't most games use their own codecs for sound? Makes more sense that way because you can insure performance and stability. Doesn't sound safe to rely on codecs installed on your system.

 

[slayn]

I have that same audio problem too. Never tried to do anything about it though.


Also a more detailed explanation of what I meant:

I think that areas, radiating outward from the towns and roads, should be divided into zones. Every zone would have a level range.

areas around wilderness towns should have a range of like 1-5 and list of wild monsters that fit that range. When you are level 1, level 1 monsters should be pulled from the list for random encounters. When you are level 5, level 5 monsters should be pulled. This should 'scale' in the same way it already does. Say at level 1, all you fight are mud crabs, but at level 5 you are mostly fighting wolves. And at level 20 you are still fighting level 5 wolves.

But if you travel far away from town you should enter a zone with a level range of, say, 5-10. So that even if you are level 1, if you enter this zone you will fight level 5 wolves. If you are level 10 then you fight level 10 trolls (or whatever a good level 10 monster is). And if you are level 20 you still only fight level 10 trolls.

you'd also have high level dungeons with a level range of like 20-*. Meaning the absolute weakest monsters you can fight in this area are level 20, and the monsters here will scale with you indefinitely.

all of this should apply to treasure as well.

To make the world fully realized and immersive, the world should be divided up into as many zones as possible with a gradual change from zone to zone radiating outward from the towns and roads.

and finally, lots of quests that have unique rewards should be static in nature. That is, the levels of the enemies should be hard coded to reflect the value of the unique reward you get for doing this quest. No point in fighting level 20 monsters for a reward meant for a level 5 character.

This would be my ideal at lest.

 

[GreekWolf]

It's not so much the monsters as it is the quests and items. You really have no need to improve your character to advance through the game, which is kind of a strange thing.

Yeah, now that I definitely agree with.

There's no way in hell some level 1 bum in torn up pants and a t-shirt, should be able to just stroll into Oblivion, shut the gates and save the world.

That's really the only major gripe I have with the game. You really don't have to put any thought or effort into leveling. Just walk out of the Imperial Prison, then start and finish the game without ever upgrading your equipment.

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Level scaling I can handle because you can adjust the game's difficulty accordingly. Obviously I'd prefer not having to do this but at least there's a way to compensate for it. My biggest problem is the crazy ammount of supposedly rare armor and weapons you'll run across at higher levels. It ruins the thrill of getting some awesome piece of equipment if your average bandit has the something that's almost comparible.

I remember the first time I came across a glass sword in Morrowind. It was in a shop at the Ghostgate. I had been playing for god only knows how long at that point and this was the first time I saw one for sale or otherwise. I remember seeing it laying on the table and I kept thinking of ways how I could get away with stealing it. When I finally got my hands on the thing it felt like I just pulled off the crime of the century. The sword felt unique (at the time) and very powerful, or at least a hell of a lot more powerful than those iron swords I've been using up to that point. I don't get the same feeling in Oblivion. I'm at the point when a majority of these weapons and armor are interchangable. I can find a "rare" and powerful item by killing some random guy on the road.

Morrowind may have had a problem with your character becoming too powerful but imo this high grade weapon and armor drop issue is almost just as bad if not more so.

 

[Nerevar]

Again, according to the guide, only 5 monsters in the game will continue to scale as you gain levels throughout the game.

Here is a direct quote -


Hope that helps.

monsters might not level, but the weapons / armor carried by NPCs certainly level with you, which essentially has the same effect. This would also explain why the game is so hard in the middle levels (8-15ish), but difficulty drops sharply as you hit the highest levels (the fact that everyone has daedric / enchanted weapons can't overcome your nasty skills at that point). Regardless, something isn't right about the scaling.

 

[.Abras.]

there is a mysticism spell, soul trap. Buy it. Requires apprentice level to cast though.

you cast that on an emeny and then have about 20 seconds to kill them while soul trap is in effect, if you do, you get their soul. Note that you can not steal the soul of 'humanoids' (basically any of the humanish races that you could have picked for your character)

when you steal a soul, you need a soul gem to hold it in. Souls and gems come in different sizes and a gem can only hold a soul that is equal to or less than it in size. When you steal a soul, that soul will be placed in the smallest gem in your inventory that can hold it.

you can then click on it to use it (the gem and soul are gone forever) to refill charges. You get a pretty good recharge from even smaller souls. And something like an Ogre which is 'common' gives, I think, like 800 charges.

Spoiler

There is an artifact that acts as an infinite soul gem that I've since come across. You still have to steal souls but when I recharge the gem does not get used up so as long as I have the mana to capture souls, I can infinitely recharge my stuff without having to buy more soul gems.

Thank a lot, but I still don't get it one thing.

I have a empty common gem, and I just used soultrap and killed a (don't know the name, looks like a little dinosaur). But it says that I don't have a gem big enough to store it his soul. And I killed more than 8 enemies with soultrap, and I can't get a soul. That's strange, isn't it?

 

[Joe]

ok so its a few days later, how is oblivion holding up? how does it compare to morrowind?

i know these questions have been asked before but i wanted to ask now since its been out a few days and i wanted to ask people who are actually playing it.

 

[slayn]

I'll give you a small hint, because otherwise, you might be wandering around for days -

Spoiler

To the right of the ruins, look for a barrell sticking out of the ice. That'll jump start the quest.

Good luck

ok question, cuz I'm a bit confused by the wording of the note.

Spoiler

found the barrel with note and key, found a locked chest that requires a key. Presumeably, this key opens a chest which has a key which opens the chest I found. Its unclear where this middle chest is in terms of general area.

The note talks about using chests from inside the dungeon, but that could mean the locked chest is in the dungeon (which I don't remember encountering), it could mean he dragged a chest out of the dungeon and hid it somewhere in this open area, it could also, depending on how I read this, unlock a chest back in town which contains to key to this real chest. And that... is a lot of ground to cover for what is probably a partially hidden chest in the snow

I spose I shall make another sweep through the dungeon to see if there is a chest I don't remember first. It probably would have helped had I found this when I was going through this place originally.

edit:

Spoiler

bah, I remember now. I'm thinking its this chest in the very beginning behind a grate that I have no idea how to open. I had forgotten about this chest before. At least that limits the searching area for some kind of nearby lever or something.

 

[slayn]

Thank a lot, but I still don't get it one thing.

I have a empty common gem, and I just used soultrap and killed a (don't know the name, looks like a little dinosaur). But it says that I don't have a gem big enough to store it his soul. And I killed more than 8 enemies with soultrap, and I can't get a soul. That's strange, isn't it?

then the souls of the monsters you are killing are 'larger' than common.

it goes somethign like petty, lesser, common, large, grand (I think). If you have a common gem, and are killing monsters with large souls, then it won't work.

also, make sure your gem does not already have a soul in it. If you hold your mouse over the gem, it will tell you what level of soul is already inside.

 

[Burger]

Damn Slayn, can you tell me where to find

Spoiler

infinite soul gem?!?

 

[cicero]

Sorry if this is a repeat question, I did search though. How do you put books on the shelves of your house?

 

[slayn]

Damn Slayn, can you tell me where to find

Spoiler

infinite soul gem?!?

Spoiler

I briefly explained my own adventure in a previous post. There is all kinds of crap north of cheydinhal. I suggest you go exploring in those mountains. Dive rock, if you can find it, will be particularly useful in this endeavor. The place you are looking for for the stone itself is Azura's Shrine.

 

[Burger]

Super sweet! Thanks!

 

[slayn]

bah, I can't figure that place out, back to exploring outside.

I keep turning a corner and seeing roughly chest sized rocks and thinking, 'yes! wait... god damn it'

edit: woohoo, found it =)

edit 2: god damn it, theres more than just the two chests? >_<

 

[Regret Truth]

M'raaj-Dar the Khajiit vendor in the Dark Brotherhood reminds me of Antonio Baneras as Puss n Boots in Shrek 2. And he won't stop calling me house cat. :lol

Wait a sec. What race are you in the game? Are you sure he calls you a "house cat" Im a black wood elf and that fukking pussy cat wizard calls me an a dirty ape!

If this is the case then this Radiant AI has reached a whole new level.....Racist NPCS! :lol

Seriously though, someone please confirm what insult M'raaj-Dar calls you.

 

[TemplaerDude]

Anyone come across that half-burned out city south of Chorral full of bitter people?
What's their deal... I can't really get much out of them.

 

[Nerevar]

Wait a sec. What race are you in the game? Are you sure he calls you a "house cat" Im a black wood elf and that fukking pussy cat wizard calls me an a dirty ape!

If this is the case then this Radiant AI has reached a whole new level.....Racist NPCS! :lol

Seriously though, someone please confirm what insult M'raaj-Dar calls you.

did you play Morrowind? If you want to talk about racist NPCs, the ones in that game ....

 

[Uncle]

Spoils the Fighters guild quest line:

Spoiler

I did the Forsaken mine quest, where I found Viranus dead and the Blackwood company behind it. I tell Oryn. He tells the boss woman, who expels Oryn and demotes me. Fucking bitch. Now I won't rest until I have her job.

I wonder if the questline can be completed without that happening...

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Anyone come across that half-burned out city south of Chorral full of bitter people?
What's their deal... I can't really get much out of them.

You'll find out their deal sooner or later if you've been nice to that Aragonian girl whos mother runs the Northern Goods and Supply shop.

I'll just leave it at that.

 

[GreekWolf]

bah, I can't figure that place out, back to exploring outside.

I keep turning a corner and seeing roughly chest sized rocks and thinking, 'yes! wait... god damn it'

edit: woohoo, found it =)

edit 2: god damn it, theres more than just the two chests? >_<

I just found it!!

Spoiler

3 chests in all. One in the crumbled tower, directly to the left of the ruins. One about halfway up the trail, behind a huge rock that is right next to a crumbled stone wall. The last one called the forgotten chest, is located up high and to the right of the Serpent's Trail door ( if you were facing towards the door ).

I ended up having to use my nighteye ring to find the last chest, because all of the snow and fog was hard to see through.

The Wizard's ring is definitely worth it, definitely an "uber" item in the game. I won't spoil it for you, but it's sure as heck nicer than that stupid Dragonstone that the countess is slobbering over. :lol