The Oblivion Thread vol. II

[bonscott]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
2) Barrels and crates in cities and dungeons are recharged after exactly 1 month game time. I learned that the hard way - I had 3 crates in the market district (1 for storation, 1 for stolen goods to be sold and 1 trashbin), and all three lost their content. In a 4th crate in a dungeon near Kvatch I had stored some loot (which had gotten too heavy) and its comtent disappeared at the same time. When I looked at the date, it was exactly 1 month after the game started.

Just FYI that this is mentioned in the manual. The only safe place to store stuff is in your house.

[bonscott]

RE: BT Mod.

Oh yea, that mod totally rocks. I loaded that up a couple days ago and it really improves things. My favorite new feature is the added column for spells which tell you how much magika it eats up per caste and the indication on the main screen how long you've got until an effect spell caste on yourself expires.

[bonscott]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Btw, for playing with the XML files, I'm using XML Marker:

http://symbolclick.com/

Are there any others out there that are better?

Notepad.

Seriously actually, any old text editor will do. I personally use the same editor I use for HTML/Javascript/CSS which is TopStyle.

[snoopy369]

Altova, the XML editor Civ4 creators Firaxis used, has a free version of XMLspy (the "home" version). It's normally a fairly expensive program, and it works reasonably well.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Thanks for the heads up .

[Imran Siddiqui]

... just played around... I think I'll stick with XML Marker. Just need something simple.

[snoopy369]

Played around with BTMod today, got things the way I like them ... Also the Colored Map mod that the BTmod folks like.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by bonscott
Just FYI that this is mentioned in the manual. The only safe place to store stuff is in your house.

There are people out there who actually read manuals? For shame!

Seriously, in terms of roleplay and immersion using the manual is even bad. My character does not have a manual "How To Behave In The City". He does what he considers to be right. I play a thief and murderer and was so naive to store the swag in a place I considered as safe, because nobody except me gives a sheit about these crates, or at least so it seemed for long. Now somebody stole it from me, serves me right for being naive and gullible. Big deal. More loot will come across my road, or I will wind it out of the dead fingers of my victims. Next time I'll be smarter and store it in my mansion. Oh, did I just call that thumbledown hovel in the docks district a mansion? My bad. I could easily afford a better home, but hey, I am an outlaw and should be living as such. Not in a mansion. But in a dark, dirty and greasy hole. Aye.

By the way, the level scaling bit me in my arse yesterday for the first time, when I closed my first gate at level 15. Late, I know, but so far I enjoyed the quests of my 2 guilds (thieves and muderers) way too much to give a damn about the main plot. I still regret, that I didn't give that damn amulet to Baurus when I left the prison. I am not a hero, and I don't need public attention. In fact, it is the last thing I want. (EDIT: a rather amusing detail: After I returned to the city, a merchant talked to another one on the street about that hero, who closed the Oblivion gate, and how he is the shining bacon of all mankind... The hero stole her purse and house key anyway )

Well now, when I arrived in Kvatch, things got really really bad. The first part was ok, although I had to tone down the difficulty a bit to keep it enjoyable - in the meaning to have a fair chance to do a fight in the first run using the whole arsenal of tricks like stealth, potions, poisons and weapon choice. But then I came to a point, which was near impossible. I had to lower the difficulty slider to zero (aye, Z.E.R.O.) and still needed 3 or 4 reloads to succeed. I put quite some weight into my blade and light armor skills, I am a blade journeyman and a light armor expert even though it still goes down to 50% after 2 hits, how sad is that? I am decked in Mithril (should be appropriate for a mid-teen), repair it often even during quests, and I have some magical items. And I took levels in strength and constitution to hit harder and last longer, but still...

Is that the way the game is supposed to work? I am not against the level scaling, au contraire, it gives me the freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want - in theory! But please balance it some better. I mean, I gain levels doing non-combat skills like alchemy, stealth and speechcraft. But it seems, that monsters gain only combat skills and don't care about all others. Is there a mod or another solution out there to address this?

[Kinjiru]

Well Sir Ralph, the balance may be a bit off, but on the whole I would say that your experience is about right. In those gates, you are going up against guys that are supposed to be some of the most fearsome things around. You are MEANT to be outclassed.

So, if you try to go toe-to-toe with them, they should spank you. In my first attempt at the gate (level 9), I tried to use my standard attack of throw a frost spell from hiding, throw another before the enemy can react and then close the distance as quickly as possible and attack with my bad-ass magic sword.

I died quickly. Reload, try again, die quickly.

Finally I decided to try a different tactic. Range attack (spells), run away, only fight melee when absolutely forced to and heavy use of shielding spells and potions.

It was a very difficult fight, but I prevailed, without having to move the difficulty slider.

The higher level you are, the more difficult standing your ground will be in those kind of fights.

[Harovan]

I don't have a problem in outdoor situations, where I actually HAVE a choice what I do, where I CAN hide, run or use some strategy. The situation I described was indoor. No hiding, no running away, no strategy, only 2 or 3 NPCs as "help", who "pulled" the mobs and went down in like 2 seconds, so I had the unshared attention of about 10 angry monsters (rather more than less). On normal difficulty levels I lasted like 5 seconds tops, potions or not. And combat strategies, with that sluggish interface?

I am tempted to just leave the main plot be. May be I am not meant to be the savior of the world. I can live without it. Not sure if the game can.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Played around with BTMod today, got things the way I like them ...

Btw, you using the Tahoma font or have your found something you like better? I want to find a better font. The font used is the smaller font, so it works for the expanding of the UI, but I want something with a bit more flourish .

[Imran Siddiqui]

Oh, btw, the "inside" of Kvatch was probably one of the hardest parts of the game for me so far (I did it at level 5-ish). I think it's supposed to be super-tough, no matter what level you are at.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Yeah the gate at Kvatch was tough for me as a lv3....I did the go in and kill as much as you can, staying close to the door. As soon as you are close to death, go back out the door to the city and recharge. Rinse and repeat until they are all gone. The monsters will not follow you through that door.

But I'll have to do it again since I started over and I'm already lv10 and I'm not anywhere near done with the sidequests I've found to go and do that.

BTW. Can someone please tell me where the "local graveyard" is for the Imperial city, so I can finish that merchant quest. I've spent arounf 45 minutes looking around for one, including walking around the outside of the city. The only thing I'm accomplishing there is increasing my athlectics skill.

[Kassiopeia]

There's a pretty large graveyard in the central district surrounding the Imperial Palace.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, its around the White Gold Tower in the Central district.