Oblivion-Verdict

[nottheking]

Well, I must say, I don't think any of my characters were creative (or was it insane? ) enough to try that trick with frenzy-ing the Arcane University. Rather, I simply built my fortune the good 'ol fasioned way: loot, loot, loot. Welkynd and Varla stones fetch a lot, and Welkynd stones happen to "respawn" in their dungeons after around a month or so. (Varla stones are limited, it seems) The higher your level, the better the loot enemies carry, but even at a low level, careful selections of what you carry can results in big cash yields. I favor potions at earlier levels, replaced by some weapons, and light armor, at later levels. (glass, and even elven, armors can fetch quite a lot of dough) The key is to remember that at first, you're limited to 1,200 gold per item, so don't bother trying to gather items worth a lot more than that.

That said, on the subject of using spells for profit, I was a bit dissapointed; I found that a simple trick is to acquire 25 restoration skill, and make a spell that both fortifies personality and mercantile, both 100 points for 2 seconds. A quick cast right before dealing with a merchant allows you to easily acquire over 70% value from loot, and in many cases, also allows you to "invest" 500 gold, allowing you to sell more expensive items at fuller value.

As for how hard it is to be a mage, it depends on your level; when I reached 100 destruction at first, around level 10, it was rather easy; one quick "electrocution" spell would blow away almost anyone; no need for "enemies explode." (or "Finger of the Mountain") I then made a (fairly rough) transition to being primarily a sword-wielding warrior, but often found I had to fall back on some spells to assist. I've also found I dislike many kinds of combat, particularly against non-humanoid enemies, as well as acquiring a particular dislike for the undead, which in my opinion, have far too much health.

 

[dhlucke]

My mage is level 40 now. I just beat the mages guild quest. It was damn hard. The only way I could do it was by being invisible and walking past most of the necromancers until I got to the last guy and whopped him. I made a spell or two that basically dish out a lot of damage but they don't always work. I've tried both instant damage and slow damage but some guys are very resistant. They're touch spells so I'll cast them and then go invisible. Kind of the easy way out but still a challange. I need to get my guy some weapons skills. He does zero percievable damage when I use a blade. One thing that I've been doing though is letting enemies cast spells on me right after I drop a big spell on them. That recharges my mana with some gear I've got and then I "try" to finish them off. Some of these advanced necromancers are damn hard though. I spent over an hour (probably 2) yesterday trying to beat one and never did. I finally gave up. It was unbelievable. Annoying at the end. He kept summoning a wrath to piss me off and distract my summoned monster. One on one I couldn't do anything to him. I'd get close but never close enough. I must have drank 50 potions of health and mana trying. I'm going to go back with my admirer and a mage apprentice and see if that helps.

Cash? I can't spend it fast enough. They need to fix that. I have over 100K now and I buy everything that comes my way. I'm a master alchemist though and that generates a lot of funds. I don't even bother going for the 1200 gold let alone 1700 gold if you're a super merchantile person. At 800 gold I'm good since I bring back about 900 points of loot from each battle and most of it is Daedric. That's around 10,000-20,000 gold most of the time. I'm a mage and bring back that much. With a few potions I'll bring back even more. Merchants never let me sell for above 79%. I cast charm spells and an improve merchant skill spell but my main stats for merchantile are too low.

And here's a good hint for those hard battles. I was in a dungeon and this stupid necromancer adept would not die. I tried everything but refused to give up on him like I had the other one. It was a level with water in it but it had stairs coming out so we were going in circles. I finally solved that with a water breathing spell. I got in the water, and stayed under. He followed. I then kept paralying him and zapping him until he apparently drowned.

 

[dhlucke]

One thing to note is that doing the first oblivion gate at kvatch is too hard for me. I don't know what it is but I simply get worked. Each monster is like an epic battle. I'm starting to think that waiting to do the main quest until the end is going to make this game close to impossible.

 

[BomberBill]

I'm surprised that you've played this game, Chief.

 

[Flakes]

One thing to note is that doing the first oblivion gate at kvatch is too hard for me. I don't know what it is but I simply get worked. Each monster is like an epic battle. I'm starting to think that waiting to do the main quest until the end is going to make this game close to impossible.

really then youll strugle, the game levels up with you to a certain point, i did the Kvatch gate at lvl 1, and it was pretty easy. but now at lvl 16 im finding things a bit tough.

dont quote me on this but i think things scale up to your lvl by a percentage(so rats and things become easier to kill)

so rats will lvl with you till you get to lvl 6 or so, gaurds i think are alway s a few lvls higher, and humanoids in the gates will probs start to become easy after lvl 60.

 

[dhlucke]

Some things level to you and some don't. The creatures in the oblivion gate do. The minotaur lords in the arena do as well. I struggle a lot with them too.

I did the first gate my first time around and didn't really have a problem. This is completely different though. Once monsters started summoning on a regular basis I noticed that it was much harder. 2 liches and 2 xivali against me isn't exactly easy.....

 

[dhlucke]

I don't think I can get to level 60. I've almost maxed out all my main stats. I have maybe 50 points left to work with so I should max out at level 45.

 

[Fndr7070]

Jeez. I'm still on level 9.

 

[BomberBill]

I don't think I can get to level 60. I've almost maxed out all my main stats. I have maybe 50 points left to work with so I should max out at level 45.

Do you have a party with you in this game or is it strictly single-player as in no help from npcs?

 

[dhlucke]

Just you. However you gain followers at the end of I think every quest line. At the end of the arena you get this retarded torch holder who loves the ground you walk on. At the end of the others you get a guy a few levels below you. If they die though you get a new one so they're unlimited. So I guess you could have a few guys in your "party" if you want but they're mostly canon fodder. Especially the retarded "adoring fan" guy.

 

[dhlucke]

Jeez. I'm still on level 9.

If you "train" you'll level up faster. If you train 5 times per level then you theoretically should level up in half the time. Granted, I don't think I'd do that next time. Made it go too fast. Next time I think I'll only train my secondary stats which do nothing to level me up. Now I'm stuck with a guy with uber magic skills but who can't do anything else. Picking a lock is a joke. Fighting is ridiculous. I'm like corky with a wand.

 

[mattyink]

Lol it does not have bad hit detection. How can you even say that when you can shoot an arrow at somebodys neck and it actually sticks in their neck? Pretty good to me. And melee combat is easy to hit with too, provided you dont just flail around. Standing toe to toe with someone and clicking attack Diablo style will get you killed too.

Anyways, I am a few hours into the game (I have to work 8-5 ) and I am impressed overall, I can't even think of anything to complain about it. And by the way, my system rapes this game at 1680x1050 with everything maxed. Take that xbox fanboys. To all the people who swore that PC gaming was dead after the xbox 360, I laugh at you.

ATI x1900xtx
Athlon 64 4000+
2 gigs RAM 2-3-2-5

YAY imma have my new PC soon with that card and a opteron OC to 2.5ghz
1600x1200 all maxed out HDR and AA sounds good to me hehehe

 

[Flakes]

Just you. However you gain followers at the end of I think every quest line. At the end of the arena you get this retarded torch holder who loves the ground you walk on. At the end of the others you get a guy a few levels below you. If they die though you get a new one so they're unlimited. So I guess you could have a few guys in your "party" if you want but they're mostly canon fodder. Especially the retarded "adoring fan" guy.

yeah that adoring fan is annoying, i told him to stay somewhere and forgot where i left him lol. theres mods about that change his hair and facial features. btw im lvl 16, completed the dark brotherhood, arena, on my 3rd oblivion gate, half way through the theives and done the mages guild.

ive had trouble leveling up since i choose rogue, and ive been leveling my secondary stats more i was stuck at lvl 2 through the whole dark brotherhood.

btw being a vampire helps

 

[BomberBill]

I know this will sound ridiculous, but since my poor response to Neverwinter Nights and its use of yourself with only one helper, I've gone off games that dont see you as part of a group.

I like the tactical aspects of managing a team rather than just a single-player.

A hangover from Baludurs Gate most likely. Not to mention that I've only just managed to begin BG2. :lol:

Gosh I'm behind the times.

BTW, you were right about Doom3. I bought it cheaply the other day and never got past the first level. Cant get into it for the life of me.

 

[ivoryjohn]

One thing to note is that doing the first oblivion gate at kvatch is too hard for me. I don't know what it is but I simply get worked. Each monster is like an epic battle. I'm starting to think that waiting to do the main quest until the end is going to make this game close to impossible.

I waited until my 30's and had no problem with the quest. I was combination blade & mage and wore all enchanted light armor. It depends, it seems, on your character type and your approach. Every battle gives you an opportunity to figure out your best strategy, and different battles provide different obstacles for different players.

The hardest battles for me were ones with swarms of enemies where I was trying to protect an npc.

At level 38, it is hard to find worthy opponents. For me, Goblin Warlords are the hardest to deal with. But it gets easier to go anywhere and explore anything, and you never know what you may run into.

Also, in addition to the breathtaking graphics, there are some truly outstanding and unique quests in this game (those of you that play the game may have come across the magic brush quest or the dream amulet quest).

 

[turbo_mcgillicutty]

yes, the dream amulet quest was really fun. i saved the game there so i could go back and play it again when i wanted to. Not to hard with my character, but really interesting and creative.

 

[dhlucke]

I like NWN, but they never updated the graphics so that kind of killed that game for me. They could have upgraded the textures with one of the expansion packs.

Different games though. This one is like a FPS but it's Roleplaying.

 

[Agraza]

It isn't that good. Dumbed down for consoles. Especially enchanting and spell creation. Quests are linear. They are designed to be independent of each other, and very few have options on how to solve them. Those options are not very diverse either. You can't, for example, go up to the corrupt guard, inform him of the plans of others, and get him to cut you in on the corruption. Your only avenue is his destruction.

The main quest, the guild quests, the miscellaneous quests, are all independent of each other, all offer specific solutions to specific problems. I consider the game to be 90% linear.

There are only high end evil items. No high end holy equipment.

Levelling encourages you to min/max because the enemies will scale with you, and they gain power under the assumption you are min/maxxing. This isn't something you should burden the player with, especially at low levels.

The lack of a sense of achievement from Morrowind is still present in Oblivion, in a different form. In Morrowind you could obtain powerful equipment at a low level and devastate your opponents with ease. In Oblivion your treasure is always scaled to your level, as are your opponents. So you never gain an advantage over your foes. Your sense of achivement is robbed as you never become capable of either devastating or being devastating.

The genre needs more competition. It really feels like the FX generation of Geforce cards. They're so certain of their complete success that they don't put forth as much effort to rise above it all. It doesn't seem likely anyone is going to step in and show them how its done in this situation. That is depressing.

They responded to some failings in Morrowind by taking the opposite extreme in Oblivion, which created just as many problems.

The truly evolutionary development of the game will be when they don't limit exploitability, but design their "radiant AI" to account for it. You can still produce the same effect as levitate in morrowind by jumping on something in Oblivion. Now we just don't have the fun of levitate. And did they really care if PC gamers cheat or exploit? No, they even provide you with a cheating console and the ability to mod your game in freeform. They limited options for the 360 version. Simultaneously developing the game for PC and 360 sapped some of the strength from the PC version.

 

[dhlucke]

Several of the quests give you multiple options. One in particular allows you to give the quest item to one of two people or both if you steal from one. If you do it right you'll not only complete a quest but you'll get a free spell, "finger of the mountain" which is a potent master level spell.

As for being devistated or devistating, that's up to you. Change the difficulty. Train destruction every level and by 10th level you should be an expert capable of dishing out nasty spells plus having maybe blade as your main skill honed beyond that by just using it. Kill an advanced character early. I killed a guy with glass when I was around level 5. That pretty much settled any armor and blade issues I had.

If people cheat, that's their thing. It's a single player game. Let people do what they want. If you want to enchant 5 pieces of clothing/armor with 20% cameleon each for 5 grand soul gems and 8000 gold then that's your choice. I wouldn't want to make the game that easy but some might.

All I know is that game is fun, it has the best graphics out there, and it's the best they've had so far. It can always get better. I never played morrowind though so I can't comment on the differences or similarities.

BTW, what's high end holy equipment? Staff of healing?

 

[Agraza]

The quest you speak of only allows you a miniscule deviation toward the same end. The quest itself isn't completed until you achieve the final result, which is the same in both cases. The reward for that quest is also levelled. if you come as a new player, you get a weak lowbie spell. If you come as a high level player, you get a very powerful one. Unfortunately though the enemies level with you, levelled quest rewards don't. If you complete a lot of these levelled quests at a low level you're getting gimped versions of some of the best items in the game. It'd be kind of them to power these items up in a similar manner as your opponents so you don't have to worry about min/maxxing that as well.

I can only think of a few quests with different results, and they are miscellaneous quests, not sequenced ones in the guild quests or main quest. That's because your results must be tightly controlled in the sequences so you don't foul up the series somehow. To further prove this, many quest NPCs are marked as essential and cannot be killed. This is especially true for the main quest. You can beat the crap out of MQ characters and they'll get up and smile as if nothing happened.

No, it isn't up to you to be more powerful than the enemies. They SCALE UP. By 10, they have more HP to account for more powerful spells. You'll kill things slower the higher you level regardless of which path you take, unless you deliberately pick levelling skills that you don't intend to use. Even then, that won't last forever as the advantage only goes up to about level 12. Then you can't improve that single skill line any further, AT ALL, and NPCs will continue gaining strength. That is the reference to min/maxxing. If you actually pick the skills you want to have for main skills, you'll level very quickly, and be weaker and weaker compared to your enemies as you progress.

Changing the difficulty is not an argument. That has nothing to do with this. The difficulty slider makes the entire game easier or harder, it doesn't allow you to outgrow old opponents and develop to face stronger opponents.

I wasn't for or against cheating. I said certain designs were changed from Morrowind because people "cheated", and they wanted that extracted from the XBOX version of the game. The 360 game is very tightly controlled, and they didn't want to develop two games so PC gamers got the neutered version as well, despite having plenty of others methods to cheat and alter the game already present.

The game is fun, its nearly the only one, so whether its graphics are better than the rest of the genre really doesn't matter. It doesn't have the best graphics of any computer game though.

There is no high end holy equipment. Despite the Daedra devastating the world, they don't care if you walk around in full Daedric armor with a helmet that covers your entire head. How do they know you're not one of them or at least one of their worshippers? Furthermore you receive no assistance from the Aedra, the Nine Divines, to take them down. Usually in this story, you're given holy artifacts to take on the evil artifacts in use by your opponents. As it is, you have to work with enchanted antiques and the weapons of your enemies. If they're so damn magical you'd think they'd be impervious to their own weapons. They don't have to be cliche and follow what everyone else has done, but what they've done isn't the least bit explained. What's the deal?

Strange prisoner soloes the evil threat while entire city battalions are laid to waste. Prisoner does this without any help from the Nine Divines, employing ancient, unenchanted, rusting dwemer battle axes.

Would have been nice to get a little help and provide some contrast to the extreme evil destructive powers of the Daedra. It feels like they could have won this while you were safely locked in prison, but somehow that isn't the case.

The deal is this game got gimped for the 360.

 

[dhlucke]

I see what you're saying, although I could care less about the 360 version being weak , but I guess I don't worry too much about their not being a counter diety or power to the enemy. I don't read every book, or follow every detail. I know that several of the guys are in multiple quests (like a main one and a misc one) and I don't even really follow that either. That's just not my thing. The story is much less important to me than the actual gameplay, graphics, and most of all killing things and having it look damn sweet.

BTW, is that spell really leveled? When I got it I couldn't even cast it for many levels since I think I had a destruction of 50 or 70 at the time. Just getting that spell was damn near impossible. I finally just created a 3 second protection spell to get it once I got to the university. Being that it was part of the mages quest that obviously took a while.

As for graphics....I haven't seen anything with better graphics. Doom III was too dark and I think this game has HL2 beat. Farcry...nope. The thing is that none of us can even turn all the settings up. It can get better. I've got a x800xl and according to all the articles out right now there's not much I can do unless I want to drop $1200 on a SLI setup with SM3.0.

How many hours have you played? I think you can play this game a number of different ways, more than I'll want to play by the time something better comes out, and just because you can't play each individual quest in multiple ways doesn't mean the game is linear. Not in my opinion at least. You could realistically spend this entire game just wandering the maps, dungeons, and temples and max out a character. You wouldn't have to do a single quest if you didn't want to. I'm level 40 and still have that original amulet and haven't beaten the first gate.

 

[Agraza]

Yea, that spell is levelled. You're granted a different version not based on your casting skills, but your player's level. So if you were a swordsman all your life and came at 30, you would get a master level spell that you couldn't use for quite some time.

There is a command to gain access to every spell in the game. If you type it in the console you'll see several versions of that spell. Furthermore you'll see NPC spells and spells cast by some objects like wayshrines. Some of them are very powerful. They make me wish I could just bind my spells to items. *growls at gimped enchanting system*

I summoned mythic dawn armor because I have access to the spell they use to summon it. I think it is one of the coolest concepts in the game. I walk around in it too, and even though everyone knows the Mythic Dawn are bad people, no one cares. That is certainly because the people haven't been told to care since you shouldn't have access to the spell. So I'm not upset that people don't attack me or run in fear, I just think this armor is pretty damn cool.

 

[acidbottle]

this game is worthy of all the hype that sorrounds it, pretty much bored of all modern games these days but on a friend's recommendation i gave it a blast .. now my life is in shambles mwhahaha

id like to make apoint to all the fussy gits out there that say this game is laggy/unplayable etc etc .. well heres my setup:

2.8 P4 O/C to 3.2 & 1Gb Ram, ati 9550 with modest o/c

game runs at a decent 25 fps (in fact perfect as far as im concerned) around cities and dungeons .. but reduces to 15 fps around heavy forest, yet is still very playable and easy to control with combat imo. most slider bars are maxed but do have shadows turned off sadly as this hits performance quite hard.

you think you have lag, try running doom on an old amiga a1200 with 4meg fast you guys are just spoilt with consoles n rubbish these days lol

 

[Flakes]

I can only think of a few quests with different results, and they are miscellaneous quests, not sequenced ones in the guild quests or main quest. That's because your results must be tightly controlled in the sequences so you don't foul up the series somehow. To further prove this, many quest NPCs are marked as essential and cannot be killed. This is especially true for the main quest. You can beat the crap out of MQ characters and they'll get up and smile as if nothing happened.

you can actually turn this off in the pc version, you have to edit the ini file though.

i havnt played the 360 version, so i dont kno what its difference are compared to the pc, i do kno that you cant join the mages guild unless you do the quest to get the ring from the well in the first 3 days. apparantly he disapeers after 3 days in the xbox version and therefore you cant complete the recommendations to join the guild after this time.

 

[dhlucke]

He's dead. How can he disapear?