The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Discussion Thread

RX-78-2 · July 09, 2009, 09:13:12 PM

I just wanted to see how many of you play or have played this game. I also just wanted to chat a bit with all of you about it. How do/did you like Oblivion? How would you rate it from 1 to 10 (10 being perfect)? What did you especially like/dislike about it? Share your characters stats and achievements. We can (nicely) rate/criticize them. Any discussion is fine with me.

Personally, I would rate it a 9.5 out of 10. It would have been perfect if not for the _little things. The lack of voices, dialogue, and character types--mostly meaning the age of characters (why aren't there children and/or people age 0-25)--isn't really much of anything, but it kind of just shows exactly how much effort was put into the game and what parts the developers' effort was mostly put into. The occasionally stupid AI's can get annoying as well, but I must admit that I do use them to my advantage ;D (i.e. minotaur keeps running into pillar; I stand on top and "snipe" it with spells and arrows). Also, the many glitches is a bit disappointing, but I haven't encountered (m)any and I don't use glitches, hacks, cheats, etc. I play on the Xbox 360 version (bought it from a friend) so I don't use console commands or anything like that. I've been playing for a few months and have been focusing on side quests and mostly putting off the main quest. I'll list my character stats.

- Name: Shadow Wind (I just thought it'd be good for a Dunmer)
- Race: Dunmer/Dark Elf
- Appearance: White "windbraids" hair, youngest age, light green skin
- Level: currently 26
- Birthsign: Warrior
- Class: custom class called "Adventurer" (default name)
- Major skills: Blade, Blunt, Block, Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Destruction, Marksman
- Achievements: I recently got into the Arcane University, achieved 100 Willpower, achieved 100 Alteration, and fully upgraded Rosethorn Hall.
- Other notes: When looting dungeons I use all four Feather spells. I use Daedric armor (except for helm and gauntlets) or all Glass armor. I made an extremely effective Shield spell at the Spellmaking Altar at the Praxographical Center in the Arcane University (Shield 85% for 30 seconds, named "Maximum Shield" _{30 seconds is all I need, also, 85% is actually the maximum, use with Reflect Damage for even better effects}). I also use all Open spells including an Open Very Hard Lock spell that I made. I generally use enchanted weapons (except bows and arrows) even if the weapon needs recharging. I store all weapons, armor, and miscellaneous items that are not in use at my house.

One website that I find particularly useful is http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page. It has just about everything you need to know for any version of any of the Elder Scrolls games as well as information on mods, glitches, etc. Alternatively, they (ironically) have some of the most detailed information on some of the most insignificant Elder Scrolls-related things I've ever seen, such as... well, if you're interested, just take a look at this: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Ayleid_Language. Read Ayleid Grammar.

As I said before, I put off most of the main questline. I'm currently on the "Breaking the Siege of Kvatch" quest. I still haven't entered any planes of Oblivion. I do have the two expansions, but have not started either. I haven't finished any of the guild questlines either.

Anyway, sorry for the large blocks of text. I know it's a bit much, but I just wanted to share. Hope to hear what your character are like! :)

Magnum · July 09, 2009, 09:45:58 PM

3/10
I played it for the achievements so that I would get over 9000 faster. After I did, I stopped achievement whoring.

But yeah... I find this flaw in all games like Oblivion. They jam-pack it with so many things that they take away from the story and the characters. Not once did I feel a connection to anything in the game. Not even at the end when *Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler* happens. I can't even get into the main character because it is just a doll set to say certain things that don't show anything except how you feel at the moment of playing. Story, as stated before, sucked. Nothing captivating at all, and it was just the normal, "Go to this place and get this. Then go to that other place to get the other piece". Boring. All the guilds sucked except for a few missions of the Assassin's guild. The best part of the game was being able to jump like someone on crack.
My highest level on that game was when I was a sorcerer. Level 35-40 or something ridiculous like that. I regret it every day.

(Note: I hate MMORPG's. Oblivion is an MMORPG without the MMO part.

… · July 10, 2009, 05:23:08 PM

Yeah I like it a lot but I do prefer Morrowind to this one though, but Oblivion did have some nice improvements.

I haven't played it in a while so I don't really remember what my character is like but I've almost got all my attributes maxed out and I'm very close to getting my major skills maxed out. I'm somewhere in the 30s or 40s for my level. I think I'm using the KotN armor or I was at some point anyway but I think I still am. And yeah I've almost done nothing in the main quest, I've been working mostly on completing all the guild quests and closing oblivion gates.

PsychoYoshi · July 10, 2009, 10:11:34 PM

I have it for PC, and I really can't see myself enjoying it half as much on a console; there's a wealth of mods for the PC version that allow you to fix all of Bethesda's glitches (because they blow at coding; Fallout also has a crapload of bugs), fix the leveling system (without mods, bandits start wearing Glass Armor because you're high level, you need to game the system by increasing minor skills to effectively keep up with enemies' strength curving, etc.), and add new features (wooo Midas Magic).

The game is breathtakingly gorgeous, especially with a mid-to-high-end graphics card, and it's huge. There are tons of dungeons, sidequests, yadda yadda. For an RPG, yes, story is relatively lacking, but the gameplay more than makes up for it. Unfortunately, Bethesda doesn't give a poop about supporting their own games and normally only releases a couple of token bug patches and leaves everything else to the fan community to fix. If you have the PC version and you're willing to put the time in to mod the game, it becomes a 9.5. Vanilla or on a console, it's only a 7 or 8.

Shujinco2 · July 11, 2009, 07:49:39 PM

PAINTBRUSH GLITCH FTW!!!!!

I had it on my 360 shortly before getting my 360 stolen.:(

Argonians kick ass. Water breathing is awesome, as well as immunity to poisen.

Thirteenthorder · July 12, 2009, 06:42:38 PM

Aside from the many glitches and bugs, Oblivion is absolutely gorgeous. I can't understand how people could like Morrowind with it's crusty, dark graphical theme and hit-or-miss attack system (which is pure suck)

Considering I purchased a PC specifically for gaming and keep it upgraded on a regular basis, my graphics card ranks in the higher-end side of the scale, and the graphics are absolutely breathtaking.

The plethora of mods are astounding, and it keeps the game going once you finish the main quest.

I LOVE the game, and don't see myself selling it in the foreseeable future.

A letter:

**** you Morrowind, with your crotchety old graphics. You're stealing my fanbase just for the sake of 'nostalgia'. Whatever that means, you old geezer

Love,

Oblivion (and 13 :P)

… · July 13, 2009, 09:44:11 AM

Quote from: Thirteenthorder on July 12, 2009, 06:42:38 PM
Aside from the many glitches and bugs, Oblivion is absolutely gorgeous. I can't understand how people could like Morrowind with it's crusty, dark graphical theme and hit-or-miss attack system (which is pure suck)

Yeah the that stuff does suck but in my opinion the towns and places were a little bit more diverse in Morrowind and it had a lot more lore and stuff like that which most of it was pretty interesting. But yeah I like Oblivion a lot though, it's fun. I don't have any major problems with it, there were just a few things that I wish they had brought over from Morrowind. Oh and I greatly preferred the inventory layout from Morrowind than what it is in Oblivion.

Thirteenthorder · July 13, 2009, 05:39:30 PM

Something about Oblivion's towns feel more, lively. Whereas I feel like I'm sub-consciously expecting a tumbleweed to roll past my character when playing Morrowind.

RX-78-2 · July 15, 2009, 12:34:46 PM

Quote from: MagnumSonic on July 09, 2009, 09:45:58 PM
3/10
I played it for the achievements so that I would get over 9000 faster. After I did, I stopped achievement whoring.

But yeah... I find this flaw in all games like Oblivion. They jam-pack it with so many things that they take away from the story and the characters. Not once did I feel a connection to anything in the game. Not even at the end when *Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler* happens. I can't even get into the main character because it is just a doll set to say certain things that don't show anything except how you feel at the moment of playing. Story, as stated before, sucked. Nothing captivating at all, and it was just the normal, "Go to this place and get this. Then go to that other place to get the other piece". Boring.

(Note: I hate MMORPG's. Oblivion is an MMORPG without the MMO part.

You do know that MMORPG stands for "Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game", right? It's not trying to be an MMORPG; just an RPG.

Quote from: PsychoYoshi on July 10, 2009, 10:11:34 PM
I have it for PC, and I really can't see myself enjoying it half as much on a console; there's a wealth of mods for the PC version that allow you to fix all of Bethesda's glitches (because they blow at coding; Fallout also has a crapload of bugs), fix the leveling system (without mods, bandits start wearing Glass Armor because you're high level, you need to game the system by increasing minor skills to effectively keep up with enemies' strength curving, etc.), and add new features (wooo Midas Magic).

The game is breathtakingly gorgeous, especially with a mid-to-high-end graphics card, and it's huge. There are tons of dungeons, sidequests, yadda yadda. For an RPG, yes, story is relatively lacking, but the gameplay more than makes up for it. Unfortunately, Bethesda doesn't give a poop about supporting their own games and normally only releases a couple of token bug patches and leaves everything else to the fan community to fix. If you have the PC version and you're willing to put the time in to mod the game, it becomes a 9.5. Vanilla or on a console, it's only a 7 or 8.

As I said before, I'm not into mods or anything like that and I'm not worried about any glitches. But I must admit, I read about many of the programming glitches in the wiki I linked to and it is a little disappointing. And I agree that it's also disappointing that they kind of leave it to the fans and unofficial mods to fix small glitches. However, I'm not too concerned about the leveling problem as my character is mainly a combat person and I think I'm leveling him well. I guess I would still rather have it for a PC though, if only a had a good one. I also have never played Morrowind so I can't make any comparisons.

By the way, (don't know if you're interested) but if you go to http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/downloads_games.htm, Bethesda has released Arena and Daggerfall (the full games) for free and legal download to celebrate the 15^th anniversary of the series. You may need an emulator, but the site has help with that.

Shujinco2 · July 16, 2009, 10:22:43 AM

The glitches were bothersome, yes. What I didn't like was the mechanics. Specifically, YOUR character's mechanics. You could be walking right, and you'd be facing forward. It was weird. It seemed to only look good when you were in first person.

Surprising how they can make all the NPC's and enemies work well, but not YOU. :|

Still a fantastic game though. :)

So_So_Man · July 16, 2009, 12:54:07 PM

Now, to ruin it for you, the game got insanely easy once you could make your own stuff (100% chameleon armor + npcs not using detect life = easy wins all the time)

RX-78-2 · July 17, 2009, 06:07:39 PM

Quote from: So_So_Man on July 16, 2009, 12:54:07 PM
Now, to ruin it for you, the game got insanely easy once you could make your own stuff (100% chameleon armor + npcs not using detect life = easy wins all the time)

Yeah I've read about that. But that's about equivalent to setting the difficulty slider all the way to the left. I'm acquiring some Chameleon items and I only plan to go about as high as 85%. The same goes for Reflect Damage, Reflect Spell, Spell Absorption, etc. Coincidentally, getting an 85 Armor Rating is the highest amount possible (the numbers just happen to be identical), and I don't think that that's unfair, cheating, or making the game too easy. It's quite difficult to keep that amount of Shield effect on your character and I personally think it's much more fair than 100% Chameleon, Reflect Damage, Reflect Spell, Spell Absorption, etc. However, these are great for just having fun. :)

Mutilator7 · July 18, 2009, 09:36:42 AM

I borrowed this from a friend yesterday and it is awesome! I got halfway thru the arena quest and used the item multiplication glitch to get around 150,000 gold.

Flying Chickens · July 18, 2009, 12:30:36 PM

Fun game, fun game. Especially the Assassin's guild (whodunnit?) and the Arena. Except for final Arena battle. That was just disappointing.
I prefer playing as an Archer above all else, and have yet to find a bow better than Shadowhunt.
Main story didn't captivate me much. Lockpicking every house to suck the blood of it's resident then steal all their valuables does though.

Spud · July 19, 2009, 01:15:35 PM

Awesome game. Harddrive was wiped so I had to restart and find all my mods again. I miss my first character with his invisible spell. ;-; And I have to make a character just for vampirism again. But that's enough qq... I preferred the Dark Brother Hood for it's missions and rewards. Who dunnit was one of my favourite missions. Also, heavy armor + feather spell > light armor. I've never used light armor except for the very beginning of the game. The reward for completing the main quest was lame. I remember throwing it in my pile of junk in one of my houses along with my Shivering Isles rewards. I have yet to get the Knights of the nine quest going after I get through the pilgrimage.