Elder Scrolls Oblivion review

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2006-04-06 12:59pm

Whatever.

Beth can kiss my ass. I can't wait until someone writes their own exporter and starts modding the hell out of this thing. Oops! Beth should have jumped on that whole licensing thing quicker, huh? I'm now making my mission in life to stick it to Bethesda for this travesty. They keep a monopoly on these little mini-mods and charge for the shit, and no one can do anything about it because nobody can make new skins on their own. horse-manure! I read that at least one person has managed to use the Civ4 exporter to do small, non-collidable flora in oblivion so, hur hur hur!

Screw you, Beth. Screw you hard.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-04-06 01:02pm

Chardok wrote:Whatever.

Beth can kiss my ass. I can't wait until someone writes their own exporter and starts modding the hell out of this thing. Oops! Beth should have jumped on that whole licensing thing quicker, huh? I'm now making my mission in life to stick it to Bethesda for this travesty. They keep a monopoly on these little mini-mods and charge for the shit, and no one can do anything about it because nobody can make new skins on their own. horse-manure! I read that at least one person has managed to use the Civ4 exporter to do small, non-collidable flora in oblivion so, hur hur hur!

Screw you, Beth. Screw you hard.

Nobody can make new skins for models? I'm pretty sure thats wrong, as I'm using reskinned and modeled gold.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2006-04-06 01:13pm

Chardok wrote:Whatever.

Beth can kiss my ass. I can't wait until someone writes their own exporter and starts modding the hell out of this thing. Oops! Beth should have jumped on that whole licensing thing quicker, huh? I'm now making my mission in life to stick it to Bethesda for this travesty. They keep a monopoly on these little mini-mods and charge for the shit, and no one can do anything about it because nobody can make new skins on their own. horse-manure! I read that at least one person has managed to use the Civ4 exporter to do small, non-collidable flora in oblivion so, hur hur hur!

Screw you, Beth. Screw you hard.

Agreed, I would not pay anything for that crap.

They released some nice mods for Morrowind, guess that is at a end now.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-04-06 02:37pm

Stark wrote:An orrery is a mechanical model of a solar system.

The laughable part is they don't seem to expect people to just unpack it and repack it and distribute it for free. I wonder if they'll charge for the 'fix the stupid levelling' thing too? Wankers.

I doubt they consider the leveling system broken, and I'm sure we'll see all three of those on Bittorrent within hours of their release

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2006-04-06 05:11pm

Chardok wrote:I read on Beth's forums that they showed the horse armor skins months before the game released, which leave me to thik only one thing...

They must have had the bright idea to withhold content and sell it later. Meaning that the game as sold was actually incomplete(!)

Bullshit. I'm rapidly growing tired of Bethesda...I had a LOT of respect for them, especially considering they had avoided thus far being gobbled up by EA. Now...not so much.

They shou8ld have included a warning on the game:

This game 70% complete! Buy the rest in 0.001% chunks for 2.00USD per chunk! And what does Beth say about this? *Puts fingers in ears* LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!

Somebody call Chardok a WHAAAMbulance.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-04-06 05:25pm

Ya because horse armor is super important to the game...

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-04-06 07:17pm

Well, at least SOME of us are playing a game with mounted combat. Running down archers=t3h fun.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-04-07 06:33am

Help: Annoying and weird bug, I always seem to have enemies around me, preventing me from waiting,resting and fast travel. it dosn't go away in cities, buildings, whatever. Its getting annoying. Do I have to reload from an non bugged savegame or is there hope?

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2006-04-07 08:11am

Ace Pace wrote:Help: Annoying and weird bug, I always seem to have enemies around me, preventing me from waiting,resting and fast travel. it dosn't go away in cities, buildings, whatever. Its getting annoying. Do I have to reload from an non bugged savegame or is there hope?

What did you do? I rememeber one time last night, I tried to steal the main guard dude's sword from him while he was sleeping, and he woke up, and was all "FILTHY THIEF!" but I got the hell out of dodge before he could get out of bed and come after me, but from that point on, it always said the guards were coming even though, when I would pass one on the streets, he was all "Hail, citizen!"

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2006-04-07 08:21am

I had something similiar happen once, my thief got busted so I dived into the river around the capital and swum to shore. After about ten minutes the pursuit ended, with not a single guard sighted the whole time.

I assume it's going a little longer than that for you, Ace.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-04-07 08:25am

GuppyShark wrote:I had something similiar happen once, my thief got busted so I dived into the river around the capital and swum to shore. After about ten minutes the pursuit ended, with not a single guard sighted the whole time.

I assume it's going a little longer than that for you, Ace.

Its not that I'm under persuit, I escaped very nicely from a bunch of ogres.

I've travelled over HALF of Cyrodil, from the northen wastelands to the IC to the east city.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2006-04-07 08:26am

Ace Pace wrote:
I've travelled over HALF of Cyrodil, from the northen wastelands to the IC to the east city.

Find a passing wolf or bandit and kill them, if your bugged killing something resets your world-hate status.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-04-07 08:30am

Mr Bean wrote:
Ace Pace wrote:
I've travelled over HALF of Cyrodil, from the northen wastelands to the IC to the east city.
Find a passing wolf or bandit and kill them, if your bugged killing something resets your world-hate status.

Done that, no help.

should I get into Jail?

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-04-07 11:42am

Drop all your shit somewhere, then go pay the fine. They can't take your stolen shit (if any) if it's in a crate somewhere.

Unless you can stay ahead long enough to start the thieves shit, and pay it off that way.

Or use the 'bounty decreases over time' mod and just wait somewhere.

I had the same thing happen: I couldn't fast travel anywhere, because some guard somewhere was 'chasing' me, from Anvil to Cheydinhal.

Tiger Ace · Post by **Tiger Ace** » 2006-04-07 11:55am

Stark wrote:Drop all your shit somewhere, then go pay the fine. They can't take your stolen shit (if any) if it's in a crate somewhere.

Unless you can stay ahead long enough to start the thieves shit, and pay it off that way.

Or use the 'bounty decreases over time' mod and just wait somewhere. I had the same thing happen: I couldn't fast travel anywhere, because some guard somewhere was 'chasing' me, from Anvil to Cheydinhal.

You don't get it, I'm not wanted, it just has a "Enemies nearby" thingy ALL the time. Oh well, it can wait untill tomarow when I get home.

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-04-07 12:48pm

One bizarre thing that happened to me was the Mages Guild quest where you have to pretend to be a Merchant to act as bait for some Mage highwayman. My two battlemage friends ran up and started wailing on her, and, out of the bushes, an Imperial Legionary comes out and kills both of my friends, but leaves me alone! Upon repeat play I saw that his horse was dead further up the road, and it was near an Oblivion Gate.

I tried to keep him from being triggered time and time again, but it just kept happening. I eventually gave up, and looted the corpses of my dead battlemage friends. Worked out for the best really, I had been looking to replace my worthless (money wise) blade armor for steel (ie. so I can sell it when I'm done with it), and that was my chance.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2006-04-07 02:39pm

Vympel wrote:One bizarre thing that happened to me was the Mages Guild quest where you have to pretend to be a Merchant to act as bait for some Mage highwayman. My two battlemage friends ran up and started wailing on her, and, out of the bushes, an Imperial Legionary comes out and kills both of my friends, but leaves me alone! Upon repeat play I saw that his horse was dead further up the road, and it was near an Oblivion Gate.

I tried to keep him from being triggered time and time again, but it just kept happening. I eventually gave up, and looted the corpses of my dead battlemage friends. Worked out for the best really, I had been looking to replace my worthless (money wise) blade armor for steel (ie. so I can sell it when I'm done with it), and that was my chance.

Whoa. Exact same thing happened to me.

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2006-04-07 10:36pm

I played the game to completion with the levelling mod that Stark pointed me to, and I have a few more observations--

1. This plugin makes play way, way more organic, sensible, and fun. I highly recommend it to anyone who plays the game. All the observations below are based on a game played with this version.

2. Assassins rock the house down. Their combination of bows, blades, sneaking, and alchemy is a serious threat to any enemy you'll run across. With the right planning you can run some very fun scenarios.

For example, I got a strong alchemy skill and made sure to always keep a stock of certain poisons--my most used brews were chameleon, paralyze, and silence potions. The Spider Daedra that gave me so much trouble before became child's play, because I could isolate them and smack them with a silence-poison arrow, leaving them capable only of running up to me and punching, which they aren't very good at. Paralyze was a godsend in melee combat, especially against Xivilai and Dremora.

Also, there's equipment. I did Meridia's quest to get the Ring of Khajiiti, which has a 25% Chameleon enchantment. Later, I got a sigil stone with a 30% Chameleon enchantment that I laid on a pair of blue suede shoes

. With my high sneak skill in conjunction with these two items, I got through most Oblivion Gate runs without even tickling an enemy. (If I felt I was in danger of being spotted anyway, I quaffed a chameleon potion--cumulatively making myself only 5% visible at lower levels and effectively invisible later.) Sneak past dozens of daedra and grab the sigil stone--job finished. Bitches.

3. Occasionally in the game you'll hear people say something about the Nerevarine (your character in Morrowind), to the effect that immediately after the events of TES:3 he went on an expedition to Akavir and nobody knows what happened to him. Can you say "copout?" I thought this was an extremely annoying way to cap the Morrowind story. Basically, the champion of Azura was reincarnated and set the Tribunal's betrayal aright, in the process killing at least two "Gods" (and maybe three--I always killed Vivec after finishing everything else, which if anybody who has passing familiarity with TES lore wants to ask why, I'll explain later) and destroying one of the most powerful artifacts in Tamriel, immediately abandons Vvardenfell for some expedition to Akavir, which I don't think was ever referenced in any way during the Morrowind game.

I think that that trivializes what the Nerevarine accomplished during TES:3 and is extremely annoying--I think the writers realized that the presence of a living Saint Nerevar in Morrowind would have serious consequences on the state of Tamriel in the game lore, and preferred to just not even deal with it, so they handwaved it away.

4. Your allies are all assholes and should fuck off. Seriously, they're helpful in a sense, because they do damage to the enemy and offer another target, but they constantly get in your way when you're fighting. I don't think I ever had a combat with allies in which I didn't stab them several times because they blundered into my sword.

5. The Morag Tong was way, way cooler than the Dark Brotherhood.

6. Enchanted weapons are handled stupidly. They run out of charges rapidly, the costs of recharging them are prohibitive (1 septim per point? Are you fucking kidding me?), and if you're the type of character who has the soul gems to recharge them yourself, them you're probably not getting very much use out of enchanted weapons anyway--because you're a mage, after all.

7. Vampires in TES games are handled better than in any other game I've played featuring them. They're grotesque and frightening and never fail to freak me out a little when I fight them. I felt the same way about the Sixth House enemies from Morrowind. They managed to evoke my horror better than most enemies in most games.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2006-04-07 11:19pm

6. Enchanted weapons are handled stupidly. They run out of charges rapidly, the costs of recharging them are prohibitive (1 septim per point? Are you fucking kidding me?), and if you're the type of character who has the soul gems to recharge them yourself, them you're probably not getting very much use out of enchanted weapons anyway--because you're a mage, after all.

Anyone can get a simple Soul Trap spell going. After that it's just a case of choosing your victim. (I prefer good fresh Human souls, because they're a guaranteed Grand soul, and there are plenty of bandits willing to volunteer.)

However, I agree that trying to keep items charged all the time is a bit of a waste. Better to get the most hugely powerful enchantment possible but only charge it up when you really need it.

Seggybop · Post by **Seggybop** » 2006-04-07 11:27pm

Get Umbra and Azura's Star and you'll never worry about getting soul charges again.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2006-04-07 11:42pm

what is umbra?

Seggybop · Post by **Seggybop** » 2006-04-07 11:47pm

Umbra is both a sword and a person. The wielder of the sword Umbra has their soul taken and they become the being Umbra. The actual Umbra sword in the game is the highest-damage blade weapon, with a powerful soul trap effect.

South-southwest of Imperial City island there's a small Ayleid dungeon called Vindasel (Vin Diesel). Umbra lies within.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2006-04-07 11:56pm

Is there an associated quest?

Seggybop · Post by **Seggybop** » 2006-04-08 12:00am

IIRC you can trade in the sword as part of the Clavicus Vile daedric quest, but it's definitely much better to keep it. The main purpose of Umbra is to be a really hard enemy to kill and take nice items from.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2006-04-08 12:37am

Pablo Sanchez wrote: 2. Assassins rock the house down. Their combination of bows, blades, sneaking, and alchemy is a serious threat to any enemy you'll run across. With the right planning you can run some very fun scenarios.

I don't even bother using poisons. I just use sneak attacks with my bow and arrow. I never get suprised by an enemy. My gloves have Detect Life at 105 feet. I don't even have the level of Marksman to zoom yet, but I'm so practiced at firing arrows that I can jump up (while still in stealth mode) and fire an arrow at an enemy ~100 feet away behind an obstruction AND NAIL THEM for a one-hit kill. I should make a skills video or something.