The Oblivion Thread vol. II

[Solver]

There should be, uh, seventeen, because that's how many Daedric Princes there are. Assuming each Prince has a shrine in Cyrodiil. I've only stumbled upon Meridia's shrine, and heard about Azura's shrine.

[Quillan]

20 or so. There's even supposed to be a quest that you can't do unless you've done all the daedric shrine quests. Me, I've done Azura and Peryite twice, and Mephala once, but that's it.

[Dinner]

What's this I hear about the makers of Oblivion charging $2.50 to download each extra item? If that's true then it seems like a huge rip off since for $39.99 you can buy the who game with thousands of item, monsters, and the whole storyline. Is this true?

[Asher]

If you want to download official Oblivion addons, they cost money.

User-created ones are free.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The first one (horse armor) sounded like ripoffs, but the next couple (Orrery and Wizard's Tower) sound like in depth created areas with quests involved. Kind of like mini-expansions. Hopefully that is the case.

Though some user-created quests are starting to get made. Totally free, of course, but I won't touch them until I get through the game.


Anyway did a bit more of the main quest (sewers and books). I've done all the quests in Anvil as well (great fun those quests were ), and got a house, which should make storing loot much easier (I don't have to be such a pack rat... and I don't want to download the horse saddlebags mod). I come across TONS of Gates of Oblivion, but I'm avoiding them for now, because they get a bit boring after the 4th one. Main culprit being some of them you have to go in circles just to get to the main tower in the middle, where all the fun happens.

Though I've hit level 13, which means I get to face actual Clanfear.

Oh, and I've just taken out Umbra... very awesome sword... now to get to Journeyman status in Armorer.

[snoopy369]

How exactly do you define "get through the game" ... getting through the main quest would take you about 6 hours at most of gameplay, if you focussed on that ...

[Imran Siddiqui]

How exactly do you define "get through the game"

Whenever I end up finishing the main quest.

[Silver14]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

How exactly do you define "get through the game"

Whenever I end up finishing the main quest.

But the game isn't really over until you have stolen every cup, dish and piece of flatware in the game and dropped them in your own virtual house like a crazed hermit with a hundred cats.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Silver14


But the game isn't really over until you have stolen every cup, dish and piece of flatware in the game and dropped them in your own virtual house like a crazed hermit with a hundred cats.

[Harovan]

I did some research over the weekend and played a mage and a heavy armored fighter over the battle of Kvatch. Some may remember, that I had serious problems with my level 15 thief, while it was for my re-rolled lower level thief doable, but still pretty hard, because light armor in this game isn't worth **** and there is (to my knowledge) no avoidance bonus to the armor class you get for high agility (like in DnD games and most MMOGs).

The mage went through well, even if I got caught and cornered (for the most part certain death for the thief), I usually could summon a zombie or skeleton to my relief.

For the heavy armored fighter it was a piece of cake. I had help from the town guards and legionaries, but I could have pretty easily done without them as well. I died several times, but not because it was hard, but because it was so easy, that I didn't bother to check for my health bar and neck a potion. I'm pretty sure, had I paid due attention to my health bar, I wouldn't have died with the fighter a single time.

With the thief it's sneak - poison arrow - headshot (~1/4 health gone) - melee - heal - poison blade - melee - heal again - slash until it's dead - repair light armor and blade, which is down to 80% or even less due to the long fight. It's a rather painful micromanagement (worsened by the interface) and you need a lot of potions that way.

With the mage it's get as close as you can using detect life, summon, pull with a ranged spell, let the zombie do the dirty work, help with damage life or cold touch spells, resummon if necessary. Battles doable without interruptions for heals and potions (which were common and necessary for the thief), after all it's not you who they damage, so no heals needed and no poison either.

With the fighter it's just wade in without fear and the need of any preparation and strategy, slash until it's dead. Repair armor every 3rd, 4th fight, because it's damaged slowly - the fights are just too quick.

I can understand now, why some perceive it as too easy and some as too hard. If comparing the three archetypes in this game (fighter, mage, thief), balance is seriously out of whack. Light armor is too weak and seems to give no bonus, perhaps aside from run speed, which is however not relevant in combat - if you have to run, you lost the battle anyway. Heavy armor OTOH is ridiculously overpowered. It gives a nice damage mitigation and you have no penalties neither for sneaking (you only need other boots and later not even these) nor casting. The only minor annoyance is your low runspeed and some hardships while swimming - but who needs swimming if he can god-like walk on water.

[yin26]

That's a pretty good summary, and it just means to me that a person can craft the kind of experience he or she wants from the game. I am taking the route of a thief who has given real focus to fighting. For example, I beat the arena early to up my block, blade and armor stats...at the end you also get a useful item. Realizing, too, that I would need to repair armor often, I sought special training in it and can now repair magical items (important for that item I just mentioned). My hammers rarely break now as long as I don't try to repair something already at 90+%.

I just finished Kvatch with this character (level 9) and didn't die. Mostly is was pretty easy with a few very close calls that required potions (I focused a great deal on alchemy, too, and can now see all 4 effects from each ingredient) and healing magic. But the fun to micro ratio felt about right to me...so if anybody wants to try a buffed up thief, it's definitely worth your time to nurse the character early and make him a decent fighter with enough magic and potion ability to get through tougher spots.

One thing to keep in mind with this character is I am expert at sneak (which is just fun) and my markmanship is superb. A Master Marksman and a Master Sneak combine to have arrows that a) ignore armor and b) have a chance to paralyze in the event the creature isn't killed outright! Given that the game is structured most of the time to present you with one or maybe two enemies at once, a combination of skills like this is deadly (and, for me, fun). Sure, I'm a long way away from being a Master in both of those, but I'm working on it and having fun along the way.

But it's clearly important to think about what kind of game experience you want and chose/build up accordingly.

[Jon Miller]

with light armor I dodge by running arround...

JM

[Harovan]

What do you do to get marksmanship up yin? Do you "melee" with a bow, meaning continue shooting when the mob is already whacking you? With my thief (or thieves, I have more than one) I usually change to blade if the mob comes close enough, perhaps that's the reason why my marksmanship is lagging.

[yin26]

Sir Ralph:

I also switch to meelee in those cases. What I've been doing is *not* sleeping to advance a level until I have paid for training to the max allowed each level (5 training sessions). Until now, I've focussed on Armorer (to get to the point where I can repair magical items). The next will be sneak or marksmanship...I'll have to decide.

So for marksmanship up until now, I've a) started each battle with a few shots (often running back some distance to see if I can hide in the shadows and do it again) b) taken every opportunity to do things like hunt deer, mud crabs, etc. I use the venison and crab meat for potions anyway, so there are "several" rewards in doing this stuff.

Of course, this is very time consuming and for many gamers would be quite dull, but it is leading to some skill sets I enjoy, and one of the great things about the game is there is plenty to do in between these sessions. If you don't want to pursue the main quest by going all over the map, you can visit a nearby fort and clear it out, hauling loot back to the city for cash, etc. There are so many hooks in the game is rediculous!

[bonscott]

Ok, finally did Kvatch this weekend. But it's funny how sidetracked you get. I got to the area at night so I decided to head over to Anvil since I hadn't been there yet and sleep at the fighters guild (of which I am a member). I was level 5 and that was my choice to go to Kvatch after hearing how hard it was at level 8 and above.

Well......got tied into quests in Anvil and before I new it I was level 7. Argggg. Now the baddies will be harder at Kvatch. (And I totally agree that the Anvil quests are super cool).

So I get to Kvatch. I must say that I had a realatively easy time of it in the first part. But I'm pretty much a pure fighter build with Restoration magic as my only magic skill. I did the first part solo. Lots of healing but not too bad (block those Fire Antorochs baby!)

Castel Kvatch was pretty tough though and I died twice trying but got through it.

So now I'm level 9 and feeling fine.

But man does the Oblivion plane reminded me of Quake or Doom (the originals). I felt a little Deja Vu.