Elder SCrolls: Oblivion, and SirNitram

[SirNitram]

So I'm like a few years late. Those who've enjoyed it, can you recommend it to someone whose enjoyed both new Fallouts, Dragon ages, and such? What mods do you consider 'essential'?

[DPDarkPrimus]

Oooh shit, uh... let me open up Oblivion Mod Manager...

Oh yes, first of all, get Oblivion Mod Manager.

I have a couple mods I can't remember the names of that decrease the weight of potion ingredients and make the UI smaller (read: not ridiculously huge).

Also have a Save Manager that lets me have multiple characters without their saves all in the same spot (and it means they can each have an autosave, too).

Other than that I just got some better shadows, more eye colors, a mod that adds a bunch of cabinets and display cases to the Skingrad mansion you can buy, so I can display all the cool junk I don't want to use but don't want to throw out...

I also have a Deadlier Sneaking mod because I found the base stealth damage modifiers to be junk, but I don't know about using it first time around.

Some folks might swear by Obscuro's Oblivion Mod, but again, you should play the game as it was first.

[Executor32]

Unique Landscapes and Better Cities are a must for me. Unique Landscapes especially, as it bothered me to no end that almost all of vanilla Cyrodiil looked exactly the fucking same.

[PeZook]

Get something that overhauls the enemy entire levelling system, as it is idiotic.

[Psychic_Sandwich]

You need Oblivion Mod Manager and Oblivion Script Extender; they're not so much mods as utilities that, respectively, make managing your mods easier and allow other mods to work. Then, any of OOO, MMM or Frans (or, indeed, all three, although that quickly becomes complicated), which fix the level scaling system and also add a bunch more content. If you're as annoyed at the vanilla levelling system as I am, then get an overhaul like Galsiah's Character Development. Finally, if your computer is good enough, you want to get texture packs and so forth, especially for the distance textures which are absolutely awful in the vanilla version. Also, any of the various better body mods.

[Serafina]

Get something that overhauls the enemy entire levelling system, as it is idiotic.

Alternatively, learn to abuse it.
That means one of two things: Either staying at a very low level, or powerleveling.

The first is easy - just never sleep anywhere. All enemies will stay at a low level. Your stats won't increase, but your skills will. Not much fun IMO, but it works, tough it'll ban you from several deadric quests.

The second requires much more work: Make sure that you level almost perfectly at every level.
This basically means raising two skills by ten, including one major skill. Each skill is linked to an attribute, and the increase you can purchase at level-up depends on the amount of points gained in the skills relevant for that skill (such as alchemy or conjuration for intelligence). You can raise three attributes by up to 5 each - but you need to have improved by ten or more points in linked skills. However, you'll only want to level two attributes by 5 and luck as the third one - there is no linked skill for luck, so you have to raise it the hard way.
Basically, this works like this:
Pick one skill that is linked to attribute A and is one of your major skills.
Pick another skill that is linked to attribute B and is NOT one of your major skills.
Raise the non-major skill by ten, then raise the major skill by ten. You've now leveled, got to sleep and raise attribute A by 5, attribute B by five and luck by 1.
You can also mix&match skills that connect to the same attribute for this purpose. Also, you will want to avoid taking skills that you use all the time as your major skills, as to avoid accidental leveling.
Oh, and you'll want to raise endurance to 100 ASAP, since that determines your health gain at each level and doesn't work retroactively.
A basic method for this goes like this: Take conjuration as a major skill. Summon a weak creature (skeleton) for a long time, and attack it with something. Block it's attacks with your shield until it vanishes, repeat until you've increased your blocking skill by 10. You might have to stop doing this via conjuration and use weak creatures at the beginning. Now raise conjuration (or alchemy, if it is a main skill) until you level up. Voila, a perfect level.


Yeah, it's really much easier just to use a mod instead.

[PeZook]

It's just more fun with a mod, as you get things like actual band of bandits, forests that have wild animals at endgame instead of piles of demons, etc.

The world just feels more real when you don't get jumped by bandits in full daedric gear they got from...somewhere.

[Psychic_Sandwich]

Indeed. It's worth noting, though, that most overhauls like OOO make the game a fair bit harder at low level; the first aylied ruin you see is fairly easy to clear at first level in vanilla, but the bandits outside can and will kick your arse in OOO at first level, and the ones inside are almost certain to ruin you if you're not very careful, especially the leader. It essentially forces you to do some of the non-fighty quests first in order to earn some money to buy better kit and get some training.

[Serafina]

It's just more fun with a mod, as you get things like actual band of bandits, forests that have wild animals at endgame instead of piles of demons, etc.

The world just feels more real when you don't get jumped by bandits in full daedric gear they got from...somewhere.

Oh, i'm all for changing the scaling system of the enemies! That doesn't have to change the way actual leveling works tough. It can be annoying sometimes, but i like the way Oblivion can reward smart skill selection and proper training in that regard.

[SirNitram]

A mod manager and script extender are natural to me now, after both Fallouts. Scaling enemies can be good, but it sounds like they went overboard.

[Zixinus]

I didn't bother much after finishing Vanillia Oblivion, but I recall that it was broken: the best way to play was to actually pick a class with skills you deliberately WOULDN'T improve in order not to level. Otherwise, it was near-pointless to advance. I've became profficient in stealth and illusion just to avoid most enemies instead of bothering to fight them.

[PeZook]

If you want to play an archer, some sort of archery mod is also a must, since bows are hilariously weak in vanilla.

[Serafina]

I didn't bother much after finishing Vanillia Oblivion, but I recall that it was broken: the best way to play was to actually pick a class with skills you deliberately WOULDN'T improve in order not to level. Otherwise, it was near-pointless to advance. I've became profficient in stealth and illusion just to avoid most enemies instead of bothering to fight them.

As i said, powerlevel Endurance first - at least get it into the 80s, tough 100 should be your actual goal ASAP. This can be done by leveling Armorer, Block and Heavy Armor. All three can require you to fight someone (with the exception of a high armorer skill, which can be used in conjunction with summoned weapons). The ideal controlled training regimen is in combination with Conjuration, since you can just summon up a cheat skeleton, hit it once and then block it's attacks/damage your equipment/train your heavy armor until it vanishes.

Granted, that's quite cheasy, but it it's possible to get good levels in the wild as well with a bit of skill.


Oh, and you just HAVE to get the add-ons IMO. Knights of the Nine is a nice questline, tough quite specific for certain types of characters. Shivering Isles is just awesome and hilarious.

[Psychic_Sandwich]

A mod manager and script extender are natural to me now, after both Fallouts. Scaling enemies can be good, but it sounds like they went overboard.

The vanilla level scaling is 'all enemies keep up with you all the time'. This results in bandits wearing full suits of daedric or glass armour and wielding high end enchanted equipment. They're also strong enough that one of them could solo an entire town, begging the question of why they haven't just taken over. It's just awful.

Most of the mods fix it by putting a max level cap on each enemy, so bandits scale up with you until level 5 or whatever, then stop. Same with kit. That's actually the same scaling system as was in Morrowind, IIRC, and it worked really well there. The downside, of course, is that you can't go everywhere at level one, because some monsters have minimum levels and will kill you easily. Notably, I think they carried that sort of system forward into the Fallout games, not the vanilla Oblivion ones. Otherwise you would have seen raiders in power armour.

[Mr Bean]

Scaling enemies is good but there's no cap in Oblivion which is where it went bad, OOS makes this much easier to deal with.
Speaking of mods I recommend FCOM it's Marts Monster mods (More unique and brand new enemies) the OOS leveling and the Warcry and Frany's istem system plus oodles of extra content. Problem is it's been in beta for ever since they keep add in new bits of content from the community also the lead died (Or something) right after they hit .99 ready to go to 1.0
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/t ... and-ufcom/

There are scripts and videos to show you how to do most things but set aside an hour or so to get everything to work together because you are talking about thirty odd mods plus support for nearly eighty more.

[Zixinus]

I leveled up using rat-quest in the westernmost town.

[Wing Commander MAD]

Yes I'd recommend it. Do you have it already or are you considering purchasing it?

First off, what are your system specs Nitram and what version of the game will you be running (is it from Steam)?

The only essential mods/tools are:

Utilities:
Oblivion Mod Manager
Wyre Bash
Better Oblivion Sorting Software
Oblivion Script Extender

Mods:
Unofficial Oblivion Patch 3.2
Unofficial Shiviring Isles Patch 1.4
Unofficial Official Mods Patch 15
Unofficial Obvlion Patch Supplementals

I'd recommed trying out the vanilla game with these patches for a bit first, and then adding mods to change areas you don't like. That said, you definitely need to learn how to use OBMM and Wyre Bash properly.

Personally, for an overhaul I'd recommend Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (OOO) or FCOM. Be advised that there is quite abit more that can go wrong with an FCOM install, compared to the other overhalls, and as such I'd recommend not trying it as your first overhaul/mod experience. I'd also recommend any mods from theNiceOne*.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. I can also provide you with more Mod suggestions as well based on what I use if you'd like.

*Note: I'm not certain as to how current his FCOM installer is.

[SirNitram]

Yes I'd recommend it. Do you have it already or are you considering purchasing it?

First off, what are your system specs Nitram and what version of the game will you be running (is it from Steam)?

Steam is offering the GOTY for 20 bucks. I'll be getting that.

The only essential mods/tools are:

Utilities:
Oblivion Mod Manager
Wyre Bash
Better Oblivion Sorting Software
Oblivion Script Extender

Mods:
Unofficial Oblivion Patch 3.2
Unofficial Shiviring Isles Patch 1.4
Unofficial Official Mods Patch 15
Unofficial Obvlion Patch Supplementals

I'd recommed trying out the vanilla game with these patches for a bit first, and then adding mods to change areas you don't like. That said, you definitely need to learn how to use OBMM and Wyre Bash properly.

Personally, for an overhaul I'd recommend Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (OOO) or FCOM. Be advised that there is quite abit more that can go wrong with an FCOM install, compared to the other overhalls, and as such I'd recommend not trying it as your first overhaul/mod experience. I'd also recommend any mods from theNiceOne*.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. I can also provide you with more Mod suggestions as well based on what I use if you'd like.

*Note: I'm not certain as to how current his FCOM installer is.

[Zinegata]

You may also want to try some of the magic mods - which introduce interesting spells like ones that let you fly, summon new creatures, duel an enemy one-on-one in a pocket dimension, and others. They're usually compatible with OOO.

[Napoleon the Clown]

As far as character progression goes, I'd recommend taking Conjuration no matter what direction you ultimately take. That skeleton can pull the heat off your ass when needed. Without being at Apprentice level in Conjuration you'll need to purchase something like Bound Dagger. Which is slow as hell to use for grinding. The skeleton, however, becomes perfect for grinding your Conjuration once you get access to the Arcane University. Which naturally leads me into this advice: Join the Mages Guild and complete all the recommendation quests early on. It will let you make your own magic weapons and spells and good GOD can you make some epic shit. Drain Health 100 for 1 second+Weakness to Magic 100% for 1 second on a dagger is absurd. At low levels one hit kills most enemies. The Weakness effect stacks, too. The last effect on the list is the first to take effect, so you'll be doing drain 200 on the first slash. If the second goes by and the enemy survived it gets all that health back. But the dagger will let you get another attack in with time to spare, resetting the timer on the Weakness and Drain effects. Six hits will kill damn near anything in the game.

With spells you can do absurdly huge amounts of damage for relatively little by going for increased duration instead of high damage in one second. Also, use multiple elements. Fire/Frost/Shock 10 for 5 seconds+Weakness to Fire/Frost/Shock/Magic 100% for 1 second (in similar order, just make sure the Weakness to magic is the LAST effect) will do a ton of damage. Expensive as hell, but a well-built caster should be able to pop it off a few times. If you're aiming to be a caster, leveling will be in your best interest, as it means increased magicka and increased potency with your spells.

As far as spells to provide boosts for Security, Personality, Mercantile, and such go for a one second duration. When you go into a conversation or the lockpick minigame time freezes, so the bonus stays in effect. Charm 100+Fortify Mercantile (100-current skill level) will let you buy and sell for much better rates than you could get otherwise, and it won't affect the rate you gain experience in Mercantile.

Lastly, do not put Alchemy as a class skill. It's incredibly easy to grind. Gather every ingredient you can manage, stick it in the chest at Weynon Priory, and occasionally come back to make a ton of potions. At first you'll mostly be grinding out restore fatigue, but you can just sell those bastards off. When potion making, go for the two lightest ingredients for the first potion of that effect and then switch to the two heaviest with the desired effect. Every time your alchemy improves during that session, go back to the lightest ingredients for that potion type. The weight of a potion is determined by the average weight of the ingredients for the first potion of that effect, duration, and potency. If you start with a watermelon and a pumpkin, all restore fatigues will weigh in at 5 lbs until you either rename the potion manually or the potion increases in effectiveness from the alchemy skill improving.

Poisons are the highest one-hit effects in the game, when properly done. At master alchemy with the best equipment you can do over 700 points of damage in one hit, though it will take something like half a minute for the damage to finish occurring. Weakness to Poison will push this even higher.

The Thieves Guild line of quests ends up nabbing you what is, in my opinion, the single most useful magic item in the game. With it you can avoid ever gaining a bounty again. Put it on, commit a crime, take it off. Just make sure there aren't any guards close enough to get to you before you've removed it, or you'll have to fight them off until you've accomplished your goal. You get a ton of infamy in the process, but you can get rid of it all with the Knights of the Nine quest line. Once you've got this item, use it whenever you're about to complete a quest that grants you infamy. Infamy will make the less savory individuals like you more, but the "good guys" like you less. Which reminds me: Murder someone in an out of the way place, sleep, then follow the quest it gives you. Once you have officially joined the Dark Brotherhood you'll get a suit of armor that fortifies your sneak, blade, marksman, and a few other skills I forget off-hand. Quite useful and it isn't leveled. It's a major boon early on.

The biggest "cheat" in the game without using actual cheats is a Chameleon Suit. With proper Sigil Stone selection (save before you grab the stone and if you don't like what you get, load and grab again until you get what you like), you can get to Chameleon 100. NPCs will be unable to detect you unless it's a scripted event. This gives you the ability to go into sneak mode and sneak attack a target until it runs or dies. You'll also be able to steal items in plain sight without anyone catching you. Be warned: A failed pickpocket attempt will get a bounty on your head. If you've finished the Thieves Guild quests, put on the reward item first.

As far as mods go: I recommend one off TESNexus called "Hilarity". It adds some rather amusing spells and a few massively overpowered spells (that you can obviously just not use, if you feel like doing things "legitimately"). There are two spells that will increase the target's size or decrease it's size. No mechanical change, just a visual change. Before using any of these spells, save. Some of them cause complete chaos and can really screw up the game. Not "Crash" screw up, just make it impossible to do some quests or cause problems down the road. Really, it's best used simply for the lulz.

Download the Construction Set, too. It lets you edit and create files for your own basic mods. You can tweak the weights of items, the damage of weapons, the cost of spells, etc. Just be sure to save any changes you make to an "official" file as a different name. If you mess something up you can just delete the borked file and everything will be fixed. One of the three main files, though, would require a complete uninstall/reinstall.

[Zinegata]

I'm pretty sure you don't even need to get Sigil Stones to make a 100% Chameleon. There's a Daedric Artefact that gives you a lot of Chameleon, and a good enough Illusion skill lets you craft a decent-level piece of armor with Chameleon.

However, getting a Chameleon Suit will break the game. Enemies basically can't even target you anymore. You just stab people and they'll run around panicking and wondering why they've lost an arm.

[Feil]

Enjoyable experience point based leveling, so you don't have to game the game to play the game.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15619

Sprint.
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7484

Plus mod manager and script extender, to make them work.

[Flagg]

My advice: Skip the entire main storyline and just do the guild quests. By the time you finish that decent content you'll be kind of sick of playing it anyway.

[PainRack]

I like to point out that certain plotlines and content are level dependent and hence breakable.

Knights of the Nine for example must be done either relatively late/early, if you're thinking of picking up the Thief or Brotherhood quests. There's some bugs involved with the repent line, especially with the whole shrine bits.
Similarly, some NPCs vanish when the main storyline advance or with other quests that make quest pirorisation a pain to manage, although the Shivering Isle bit and praying to yourself afterwards in the main storyline was hilarious.
Also, levelled gear and levelled imps make some quests almost impossible to do such as saving those damn farmers to get that uber coldwind sword. Wait too long to get the effective gear, or the most effective gear and the quest is "almost" impossible to do(It is possible with huge amount of AOE stun and then poison damage/DOT. )

However, the KOTN does give you what is essentially level independent armour as you can simply upgrade the equipment every time you reach the level bracket, which makes it a good quest to do early.


OoO is still one of the more interesting content/combat/ everything mod that changes everything nicely. Although I going to be a pain and just say get one of those mod that give you +5 everytime you level so that the levelling process is more enjoyable.

[Panzersharkcat]

I have a couple mods I can't remember the names of that decrease the weight of potion ingredients and make the UI smaller (read: not ridiculously huge).

I think you're referring to DarNified UI.