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[jarosh]

i've been doing a couple of small side quests and guild stuff but i've never visited the arena. where is it?

 

[SteveMeister]

Other potential improvements to fast travel (some would require a new/enhanced engine to pull off):
1. You can only fast travel to places that you have previously visited

That's already true. We enabled the major cities to start with simply because we figured your character, having started the game in jail, has surely been around somewhat. But aside from those, you cannot fast travel to a location until you've been there once.

2. You can only fast travel when you have a horse
3. If there is trouble (bandits on the road, for example) on the way to the location, the fast travel is interrupted
4. Fast travel is shown real time where you see your icon moving across the map instead of just staring at a loading screen for 30 seconds
5. Fast travel could be real-time and have the same effect that you get while driving fast in Burnout or changing bodies in Battlefield 2: Modern Combat - you see your character moving very quickly through the world and there is a blur affect around the screen as your character tears through the world - this would look really cool, and it would be easy to interrupt when bandits are in the road or some other obstacle comes up

Steve/Vark - get to work on these features for Elder Scrolls 5!

#3 wouldn't be difficult to put in, but it would be a pain for those of us (like myself) who ONLY use fast travel for quick errands, such as going to a town to resupply & repair before entering a dungeon. For those folks who only use fast travel, it'd be even MORE of a pain because the reason they're using it in the first place is because they don't want to "waste" time walking in the first place.

#2 I don't like, because it's a tool, not the required method of play, and by forcing horse ownership you're limiting the usefulness of the tool.

#4 it would be kind of cool if instead of showing a splash screen and the straight loading bar, loading progress was represented by the progress of your character on the roads -- but then the problem is that long routes and short routes will likely load in about the same amount of time, and so on the long routes the bar would be FLYING along at a very high rate of speed, while on short routes it'd appear to move very, very slowly. Having the loading bar be a fixed length gives you a much better idea of how long it's going to take to load.

#5 wouldn't work because it'd have to load all of the intervening cells anyway. The faster you go, the more often it has to load.

Remember -- fast travel is a tool. Its usage is not required. It's there when you need it or want it, but nobody is forcing you to use it. I think it's absolutely fine the way it is.

 

[Confidence Man]

I actually like the idea of randomly interrupting the player during fast travel to get ambushed by bandits or something like that. Not that it should be stopping you five times before you get anywhere, but if there was always a small chance that you'd be ambushed once on your way somewhere it'd be kind of neat.

 

[slayn]

I have found in rpgs that concepts that try to prevent the player frmo being able to rest up and recover (through random encounters when sleeping, having to actually rest in an inn or something, or getting attacked traveling back to my stash or whatnot) can sometimes sound neat as an realism to the game, but get *incredibly* irritating when it happens for the hundreth time.

I recently played temple of elemental evil, where you can't rest in a dungeon without like an 80% chance of getting attacked. Well I sure as hell was not going back to my base every time I needed to rememorize spells so the 'solution' ends up being save, rest, get attacked, load, rest, get attacked, load, rest, heal, save, rest, get attacked, load....

 

[MrPing1000]

woot finally a horse, thank you dark brotherhood. The missions have definately got more interesting as time goes on. Some of them are sorta amusing at all, well if u can forget that you are killing innocent people usually

 

[Jugendstil]

I really don't like the idea of fast travel being interrupted. Like SteveMeister said, it's a big help when I need to stock up before going into a dungeon. I'd go play Oregon Trail if I wanted constant interruptions.

 

[dammitmattt]

#5 wouldn't work because it'd have to load all of the intervening cells anyway. The faster you go, the more often it has to load.

Remember -- fast travel is a tool. Its usage is not required. It's there when you need it or want it, but nobody is forcing you to use it. I think it's absolutely fine the way it is.

That's why you have to build a new engine where the world (or cells in the world) are not constantly loading! I still think it would be really, really cool to somehow see your character getting from point to point, but it seems like most people disagree.

Anyway, I'm not bitching at all about fast travel - I think it's a great option and it makes quests much easier. During my 25 hours I've used a good combination of fast travel (on quests only) and on-foot wilderness exporation and I think the current system is MUCH better than Morrowind.

The map is also a HUGE improvement, and I love how NPCs will tell you about a location and it will show up on your map. Great, great stuff.

On another note, it's too bad that riding a horse is such a pain because of the constant loading and inability to attack from horseback.

I've been out of town since Tuesday and I can't play Oblivion until tonight. It has been absolute TORTURE.

 

[Dr_Cogent]

So I killed that ho from an earlier post and kept playing. The Dark Brotherhood took notice. Now they want me to join. Is there a down side to joining the Dark Brotherhood? Will my infamy increase? If it does, what does that actually mean gameplay wise?

 

[Bloodwake]

Grrr... I am outside Fort Grief... the gate is locked and I have no idea how to open it

 

[Mrjellybeanct]

Two quick questions (still early) - Where can I get something to heal Helljoint in the city? Aslo, where can I get lock picks? I don't think the thieve guild guy has them anymore and I need a few for a Quest.

 

[slayn]

So I killed that ho from an earlier post and kept playing. The Dark Brotherhood took notice. Now they want me to join. Is there a down side to joining the Dark Brotherhood? Will my infamy increase? If it does, what does that actually mean gameplay wise?

Spoiler

The dark brotherhood is, if you can't already guess, the assassins guild in the game. And so most of the quests involve, well, assassinations. I did not pay much attention to my stats, but I would assume your infamy goes up quite a bit do the assassin quests. I think one of the things infamy does is if your infamy is higher than your fame, then you can't pray at churches.

On the plus side, I recently finished the dark brotherhood guild, and thought it had a great story with good rewards for a thief/assassin type character.

 

[Xdrive05]

Okay, I have a question about the Book quest in the sewer with Baurus and meeting the

Spoiler

Mystic Dawn cult. Am I supposed to NOT be seen and a confrontation avoided? It seems impossible because there are Mystic Dawn cult members that walk onto that bridge where you are supposed to be spying on Baurus and the Sponsor.

I ask because once I kill them all and get the book, Baurus says "Well that could have gone a lot more smoothly" or something like that. I don't want to miss any information or anything. Thanks.

 

[Dr_Cogent]

Spoiler

The dark brotherhood is, if you can't already guess, the assassins guild in the game. And so most of the quests involve, well, assassinations. I did not pay much attention to my stats, but I would assume your infamy goes up quite a bit do the assassin quests. I think one of the things infamy does is if your infamy is higher than your fame, then you can't pray at churches.

On the plus side, I recently finished the dark brotherhood guild, and thought it had a great story with good rewards for a thief/assassin type character.

Spoiler

But isn't it possible the Thieves Guild could catch wind of this and then boot me out because I am a murderer?

 

[slayn]

Spoiler

But isn't it possible the Thieves Guild could catch wind of this and then boot me out because I am a murderer?

Spoiler

The thieves guild no murder requirement is only in effect for thieves guild quests. So if the thieves guild sends you out to steal from a mansion, don't kill anyone in that mansion. But if the assassin's guild sends you off to kill someone that the thieves guild doesn't know about, there is no problem.

The thieves only care about the reuptation they get from their jobs. You can do whatever you want for your own 'extracurricular activies.'

 

[Dr_Cogent]

Spoiler

The thieves guild no murder requirement is only in effect for thieves guild quests. So if the thieves guild sends you out to steal from a mansion, don't kill anyone in that mansion. But if the assassin's guild sends you off to kill someone that the thieves guild doesn't know about, there is no problem.

The thieves only care about the reuptation they get from their jobs. You can do whatever you want for your own 'extracurricular activies.'

Aaaaah. Very good to know.

 

[SnakeXs]

Grrr... I am outside Fort Grief... the gate is locked and I have no idea how to open it

You'll kick yourself but

Spoiler

there's a little lever/handle to the right, right near the gate.

Took me like 30 minutes of looking everywhere.

And, after 90 hours, I finally completed the main quest.

All I can say is wow. Really. Great stuff Steve & Company.

P.S. Steve, do me a huge favor and buy the man who

Spoiler

wrote the book the Brotherhood traitor wrote about his betrayal and his mother

a cookie for me. It was pure genius.

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

For some reason it took me forever to figure out how to get out of Fort Grief.

 

[TemplaerDude]

Around 12AM last night I decided to give the arena a whirl.
Arounjd 1.10AM I was arena grand champion.
Easiest fighting ever. Never even had to use a health potion. Beat them all with my steel longsword, and when the going got tough I pulled out my enchanted frost sword. That thing literally beat the three lizards in less than 30 seconds. No joke. I was so scared "omg teh lizard oh noes" then I run out there and in two swipes one of them hits the ground. I laugh and finish the others off.
The battle against the orc for uber grand champion was way too easy as well. I had my enchanted dwarven cuirass and boots on that absorbed magika and boosted my athletics, and my frost sword. Took me about a minute.
I bloody owned the arena. Owned it. Now I'm uber famous.

 

[SteveMeister]

Okay, I have a question about the Book quest in the sewer with Baurus and meeting the

Spoiler

Mystic Dawn cult. Am I supposed to NOT be seen and a confrontation avoided? It seems impossible because there are Mystic Dawn cult members that walk onto that bridge where you are supposed to be spying on Baurus and the Sponsor.

I ask because once I kill them all and get the book, Baurus says "Well that could have gone a lot more smoothly" or something like that. I don't want to miss any information or anything. Thanks.

Spoiler

Don't worry, you're good. There's actually a chance Baurus can get killed here without breaking anything. The quest's success only relies on you getting volume 4 of the Commentaries book.

 

[Geoff9920]

Spoiler

Don't worry, you're good. There's actually a chance Baurus can get killed here without breaking anything. The quest's success only relies on you getting volume 4 of the Commentaries book.

Spoiler

For me he died before I could even jump down to save his butt. Poor fool.

 

[Suikoguy]

woot finally a horse, thank you dark brotherhood. The missions have definately got more interesting as time goes on. Some of them are sorta amusing at all, well if u can forget that you are killing innocent people usually

That is the single biggest improvement other then graphics. Many of the quests are genuinely interesting and fun to do. Many of them are also very well writen.

 

[kaizoku]

Seriously having an absolutely great time with this game. I cant wait to get into the Arcane Univeristy, but also I keep wanting to steal the next item for the thieves guild or loot the next dungeon or whatever. Havent even touched the Dark Brotherhood or the main Quest yet. This game is insane, thanks Bethesda.

Dont change fast travel! I need it! and I find it great, if I want to walk somewhere I do. Sometimes I would like the option to fast travel within cities, like right to someones house or a certain shop - was there some reason we can't do that?

Went through a dungeon last night and littered throughout was some guy's enchanted armour (frost) but I didnt have enough space to carry them and loot the valuable items at the same time. Gotta go back today and grab them!

Whats the best light armour in the game?

 

[SteveMeister]

Whats the best light armour in the game?

Glass. Mithril is next best.

 

[SnakeXs]

Aww, ignore'd by Stevie.

*tear*

 

[kaizoku]

Glass. Mithril is next best.

Mithril? thats weird, I have mithril now and am only level 10. Was just about to sell my full set too for this new enchanted armour I found. Seems its worth more. Maybe I'll just keep both. Am I able to enchant the mithril armour once I get into the Arcane Uni?

Thanks Steve.

*gives SnakeXs a cookie*

Has anyone been reading the many books in the game? Theres so many, I plan to make my own library when I get my own house. er....although I guess house-owning isn't as indept as something like Animal Crossing - that should definately be in the next update Let us decorate our homes in various ways and then let us have visitors over the internet so we can show off our sword collections and whatnot.

 

[EviLore]

Glass. Mithril is next best.

Elven....

 

[SteveMeister]

Elven....

Ah, I had assumed Elven was heavy. Thanks

 

[Solo]

What are the other two spells I need for the Mages Guild quest where you need to shoot 4 spells at the pillar? Snowball, Flare, and then...?

 

[Diseased Yak]

Has anyone been reading the many books in the game? Theres so many, I plan to make my own library when I get my own house. er....although I guess house-owning isn't as indept as something like Animal Crossing - that should definately be in the next update Let us decorate our homes in various ways and then let us have visitors over the internet so we can show off our sword collections and whatnot.

My favorite book so far has been "Immortal Blood". I highly recommend reading it if you find it. It was actually the first book I came across in the game, at the bandit camp near the ruins you are facing when exiting the starter cave.

 

[IJoel]

What are the other two spells I need for the Mages Guild quest where you need to shoot 4 spells at the pillar? Snowball, Flare, and then...?

Spoiler

Fortify Magicka and Drain Magicka. You can find scrolls for these in a chest just before getting to that room.

 

[Solo]

Yeah, I found those and used them. They just reset the process...

 

[IJoel]

Yeah, I found those and used them. They just reset the process...

There's a specific order. Read below for it.

Spoiler

Fire->Cold->Fortify Magicka->Drain Magicka

The last two might be swapped.

 

[Jagernaut]

I'm curious, how well does Oblivion run on 360 systems without harddrives? (i don't own the system so i can't test it out)

 

[Regret Truth]

Remember -- fast travel is a tool. Its usage is not required. It's there when you need it or want it, but nobody is forcing you to use it. I think it's absolutely fine the way it is.

QFT.

That really should end all the disscusion about fast travel. Dont like dont use it. I can just picture the backlash you guys would have got for not including fast travel.:lol

 

[Xdrive05]

Spoiler

Don't worry, you're good. There's actually a chance Baurus can get killed here without breaking anything. The quest's success only relies on you getting volume 4 of the Commentaries book.

Awesome. Thanks for the info. I was able to save him from dying by jumping down and killing the first guy to even the odds. But am I right to assume Baurus has little to no role in the remainder of the story if he was likely to die here? He was a really cool character. You guys really nailed the believability of the characters in the world. Great job!

 

[teh_pwn]

Is there a way to make screen captures on the PC version on a clean install, or do you need a mod/software?

 

[Xdrive05]

Is there a way to make screen captures on the PC version on a clean install, or do you need a mod/software?

Other than FRAPS, I'm not sure.

 

[SteveMeister]

Awesome. Thanks for the info. I was able to save him from dying by jumping down and killing the first guy to even the odds. But am I right to assume Baurus has little to no role in the remainder of the story if he was likely to die here? He was a really cool character. You guys really nailed the believability of the characters in the world. Great job!

Spoiler

He'll show up at several other events throughout the main quest if he lives through them

 

[Spencerr]

Is there a way to make screen captures on the PC version on a clean install, or do you need a mod/software?

Unlock Print Screen (PRTSCN) button
There is a setting in the INI file:
bAllowScreenShot=0
change to:
bAllowScreenShot=1

Also, two related items for the screenshots:
iScreenShotIndex=0
SScreenShotBaseName=Oblivion

There are two INIs, one in the game folder called "Oblivion_default.ini", this is the one it uses to generate the REAL one....
My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini

Edit the first one if you want to default to having screenshots on by default for all users. The settings it uses at runtime are the ones from My Documents folder.

After you mod the INI file, you can press PRTSCN button and Oblivion will write a BMP file to your game folder.
Contributed By: Wolfiesden

But I recommend you get FRAPS instead. http://www.fraps.com/

 

[Xenon]

I have about 16 or so hours in and still feel like I haven’t even begun to play this game. So far I have done like 3 Assassin quests, won 3 matches in the area, cleared two dungeons(which have since seemed to be restocked) , closed the first gate, and maybe 5-6 side quests. I started the game with a Dark Elf Battle-Mage and ended up becoming an Assassin. After about 6 hours in I was tempted to restart with another character but I'm glad I decided not to. It has been fun devolving my character into her class instead of just having a character setup for the class from the get go. The only problem is, even though I tried not to level my character while turning her in the magi-assassin, my character went from level 5 to 10 way to quickly and now I can't even wonder the countryside because its littered with trolls. I tried walking to a town and ended up sprinting due to a failed battle with a troll and picked up 2-3 others along the way. At first I thought I'd run into a Horseman/Guard and get some relief. But the only other people I saw were a couple of dead guys(one of who may have been a guard) with more trolls standing over them. I guess its a good thing my character is fast. I ran passed a deer who for some reason seemed to be locked onto the road. I'm sure it was made short work of but I was afraid to turn around and see. :lol

I do love the game but I don't like how they just seemed to switch out the bestiary from the countryside in whole as you level up. Its like the replaced all the wolves with trolls. It would have been nice to still have all the previous creatures in the forest. Maybe have packs of wolves instead. Sprinkle in a troll here in there. But its like there is only 1-3 random monster types at one time. It really hurts the living world feel for me. It also sucks that I don’t feel safe to explore anymore.

Oh yeah. Is there a trick to getting the special slaughter fish to appear in the lake? I circled the thing like twice and only found 3.

 

[newsguy]

So I commited the cardinal sin and bought the Prima guide. I have never bought a guide, but then again I've never played through an entire RPG. This game was too good to return out of frustration. The great part is that every single quest imaginable is in the guide so when I get caught up I can look it up quickly.

 

[Baron Aloha]

Is there a way to make your armor never deteriorate? Like if you become a master armorer or something?

 

[TemplaerDude]

So I commited the cardinal sin and bought the Prima guide. I have never bought a guide, but then again I've never played through an entire RPG. This game was too good to return out of frustration. The great part is that every single quest imaginable is in the guide so when I get caught up I can look it up quickly.

Lucky you, I've been looking for that guide all over where I live. I saw it on tuesday in a far gone futureshop but I didn't have any money on me at the time. Then I go back there yesterday and it's gone. Man, I really want that guide.

 

[Cahill]

Oh yeah. Is there a trick to getting the special slaughter fish to appear in the lake? I circled the thing like twice and only found 3.

Make it your active quest and follow the map markers to locate the fish. They seem to show up as you take the previous one out. I had the quest get stuck on a dead fish once and spent an hour trying to find the next one on my own. I saved and loaded as a last resort and it did the trick.. the marker moved on and the next fish was in a spot I had been to several times.

 

[Speevy]

I think fighting the entire arena when you first start is a terrible idea. I'm on level 13, and I just completed it. Also, after you finish

Spoiler

you can fight monsters (randomly I'm assuming) every week

 

[Speevy]

Hey Stevemeister, Vark:

Did you happen to notice that Oblivion is currently the highest rated RPG of all time?

1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion X360 2K Games 27 9.3 94.9%
2. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic XBOX LucasArts 97 9.0 94.5%
3. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn PC Interplay 34 8.9 94.2%
4. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic PC LucasArts 50 8.8 93.2%
5. Final Fantasy IX PS Square Enix 46 8.7 92.3%
6. Chrono Cross PS Square Enix 41 8.7 92.3%
7. Vagrant Story PS Square Enix 41 8.4 92.1%
8. Final Fantasy X PS2 Square Enix 73 8.8 91.5%
9. World of Warcraft PC Blizzard Entertainment 62 8.5 91.5%
10. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King PS2 Square Enix 51 8.6 91.3%

 

[Keyser Soze]

Hey Stevemeister, Vark:

Did you happen to notice that Oblivion is currently the highest rated RPG of all time?

1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion X360 2K Games 27 9.3 94.9%
2. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic XBOX LucasArts 97 9.0 94.5%
3. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn PC Interplay 34 8.9 94.2%
4. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic PC LucasArts 50 8.8 93.2%
5. Final Fantasy IX PS Square Enix 46 8.7 92.3%
6. Chrono Cross PS Square Enix 41 8.7 92.3%
7. Vagrant Story PS Square Enix 41 8.4 92.1%
8. Final Fantasy X PS2 Square Enix 73 8.8 91.5%
9. World of Warcraft PC Blizzard Entertainment 62 8.5 91.5%
10. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King PS2 Square Enix 51 8.6 91.3%

I thik it needs more reviews beofre you could officialy say that, it's a great game though (*goes back to play*)

 

[Helznicht]

Xenon,

Did you try sliding the difficulty down a bit? It will solve the too dangerous to explore issue.

 

[BlackSalad]

I killed the guy that tries to recruit you for the Dark Brotherhood, is there anyway to still join? And can I still join the Blades if I didn't do it at the beginning of the game? I'm just kind of running out of things to do.. haha

 

[BlackSalad]

double post, ack