The Oblivion Thread

[Skanky Burns]

Originally posted by BustaMike
Bingo!

Right now the only point is to get access to new skills, armor, spells, etc. It serves no purpose as far as game progression goes.

That viewpoint has one major flaw.

Some enemies have +3 player levels (or some such). So how do you think a fight between a level 1 player and a level 4 deadra will go? That same player, now level 51, and that same deadra spawn, now level 54, is a very very different story. What was an impossible fight at level 1 is now a difficult but doable fight.

[Quillan]

Nostromo, that's the exact same setup I'm playing on, at 1280x1024 resolution. I run HDR and Bloom, and I get beautiful looks and playable framerate.

[Asher]

For those looking for AGP upgrades...

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30502

Gainward's new "7800GS" for AGP is really a 7800GT.

So it's got 20 pixel pipes instead of 16, and 512MB of RAM instead of 256MB.

[Solver]

By the way, the awesome part of level scaling & quests.

In Morrowind, you pretty much had to do the last part of the main quest at a level around 12-15, depending on your character. You could do it earlier with an uber character, but later, it became too easy. Now, the great thing was that you could do any quests at your own pace, whenever you want. So if you happened to take a break for too long and return to finish the main quest at level 25, you're in for a cakewalk.

The Oblivion main quest has this Kvatch section - those who've played through it know it. The section is supposed to be hard. But, how hard is hard? If they made all the enemies there at fixed level, it could be just right, but could be too easy or too hard depending on the character. Now, I've seen forum posts from people doing Kvatch at level 3 or at level 16. Both had a challenge there because the enemies you face change significantly from level 3 to 16. Or, I did it at level 5 and was also satisfied.

By the way, can anyone give me a small hint about the Grey Fox?

Spoiler:

I don't want to join the Thief Guild, I want to fight/get rid of Grey Fox, if possible. I'm assuming with all the posters, etc., that it isn't just a quest you do to find the guild but that you can also do it the other way around. Now, I found out from beggars about that meeting place, and met that Adrian, IIRC, guy who offers to join the thief guild and gives a quest.

Now, I don't want to join the guild, but can I somehow report it to the guards or something?

[Solver]

Oh, for those who really don't like the levelling system because it makes them not feel powerful enough, just move the difficulty slider left by about 25%. You'll be getting quite some feeling of power then.

The difficulty slider in Oblivion, after all, isn't like the difficulty setting in most games. It's indeed a very sensitive slider which can affect not only how tough enemies are, but thus also how you feel. Turn it down, and you feel powerful, turn it down more and you can feel like a god (Morrowind-style), turn it up and you'll find any fight a sweat-breaking occasion.

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by vee4473
Forgive what may seem like a stupid question, but if the game is made to have the creatures you encounter scale to your level so that it's not too hard nor easy and any creature can be beaten at any level, what's the point of having any level system at all?

I think the main point of having levels is to do new and different things. Your low-level character fights low-level enemies with low-level skills. Your higher-level character fights higher-level enemies with higher-level skills. These can be quite different experiences. You get to do new and different things as the game progresses.

Really, it doesn't seem very different at all from the classic CRPG design that has an area for low-level characters, an area for mid-level characters, an area for high-level characters. You're always going to be doing stuff in the area that corresponds to your level (because it's too boring going to lower-level areas, and too hard to go to higher-level areas), so you have exactly the same experience of foes who are matched to your level.

[Solver]

Yet another example. My current character can't open Hard locks. Not even Average ones. I don't have the spells yet. So I know I'll have to practice my skills till one day I can open those locks - and the spells have a skill requirement, too. Again, in Morrowind, I was opening any lock by level 3-4, so they never even mattered except the earliest parts of the game.

[Asher]

Regarding the Gray Fox:

Spoiler:

I went up through the Thieves Guild up to Guildmaster: the Gray Fox is always on the move. He roams from city to city and house to house, and the only way I could ever reliabily find out where he was was when I one of his Messengers located me and told me where to meet him. I'm not sure if you can even find him without starting the Thieves Guild quests -- the gear he has is pretty uber when it comes to sneaking/stealth.

[Kassiopeia]

Spoiler:

I couldn't figure out a way to get to Gray Fox either, or how to report him to Captain Lex, so I'm just going to climb through the ranks of the Guild "undercover" and rid Tamriel of him when I finally can locate him.

[Asher]

Spoiler:

I'm the new Gray Fox; I take that personally.

I have the sexy cowl and all...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by DaviddesJ
I think the main point of having levels is to do new and different things. Your low-level character fights low-level enemies with low-level skills. Your higher-level character fights higher-level enemies with higher-level skills. These can be quite different experiences. You get to do new and different things as the game progresses.

Really, it doesn't seem very different at all from the classic CRPG design that has an area for low-level characters, an area for mid-level characters, an area for high-level characters. You're always going to be doing stuff in the area that corresponds to your level (because it's too boring going to lower-level areas, and too hard to go to higher-level areas), so you have exactly the same experience of foes who are matched to your level.

Some quest also require you to be X level. Now granted, the one I found said you had to be level 2, but there was still a level requirement.

[Dis]

Just bought the game (and a few upgrades ). Though I did have a couple of beers and some food after going to Fry's. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to upgrade my computer after a couple of beers, but things went okay. I bought a new ATI graphics card for $250 and 2 gigs of ram (I had to ditch my old ram as I had 2 256's and only 2 slots). And the game.

Now let's hope this game is worth almost $500 to play it. . It was time for an upgrade anyways. I either buy or build a new computer every 4 years, and upgrade 2 years after doing so. And it's been 2 years since I bought my refurbished computer.

So far I've just finished the sewers/tutorial, and things look pretty cool. combat seems a little better than the first game. Using my little fire spell is real fun when it kicks the rats back a few feet. Though you get tired of sewers in games. It can't be all that sanitary to be running around in the sewers.

anyways, a few more posts, and it's back to playing for me.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Dis

I think you'll love the game .

[Dis]

As for the levelling thing, from what was said above, everything seems cool.

One question though. How is the wilderness areas? I don't want to be travelling the wilderness only to be bothered by huge packs of monsters just to provide a "challenge". I love exploring, and don't want to be challenged in outdoor areas so much. But we'll see, I just exited the sewers and haven't looked around yet.

[Asher]

Which ATI card did you get?