The Oblivion Thread vol. II

[bonscott]

Skanky,

I have a 9800 Pro. Mine didn't look much better then that at first. But go to the Elder Scrolls forum and search for a thread for "complete ini tweaks" and do the ones for the mid-range/low end machine. It is amazing how good you can get it to look with just a few tweaks (depending how old your card is though).

EDIT: Here is the direct link http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/i...&t=299166&st=0

I personally used the LowBloom ini file but turned bloom off.
800x600, large textures, no AA.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Okay so I'm a lv2 spellsword, and I'm making my way to where the city where 1st gate is from the city directly east of it. I'm strolling down the road picking up lots of stuff for my mixing skillz.

I happen upon a "guard" on horseback with a torch headed in the same direction as me. I mainly stay behind him, gathering and mixing.

A wolf come out and attacks, and the guard intercepts and kills the wolf. He then spots me and pauses (perhaps because I had my weapon drawn). I talk to him and eveything is fine (I ask him about "rumors"). I continue ahead of him and he eventually remounts his horse and starts back down the trail, going my way.

I turn back and get the wolf pelt, and go back to following him and gathering.

Then some human looking thing rushes in from the front again, and the guard dismounts to start attacking it. The creature is rushing towards me however and I swing my sword once to fend him off. That was all she wrote for whatever it was since the guard was able to pummel it a few times before it cleared to me.

After that the guard arrested me for "stealing"???? and took me back to the town that I just came from and put me in jail. WTF???

The only things that I picked up between our conversations was the wolf pelt and the ingrediants by the side of the road.

Anyway, after I got out, lost some skillz, I noticed that the city was known to me on the map and just quick traveled there.

Now I'm in the process of closing the first gate. I sure wish I'd repaired all my armor before going. There is not a lot of loot to be found. Or hammers to repair with. Well I'm broke anyway.

That was the end of my two hour play window last night. I had to save in the middle of the first gate quest.

[Quillan]

Mage Staff question

Ok, I've been slowly working through the recommendations for the mages guild in the cities, so I could get into Arcane University and make spells myself. I'm not primarily a spellcaster, so I find a lot of the store-bought spells to be a bit clunky for my inexpert casting ability. Once I gained access to the University, the very next thing they tell you is that you need to make a mage's staff. It's supposed to be a quick run outside the city to select a proper piece of wood for the staff (it's not, but that's a different story) and when you get back, the head enchanter asks you a few questions as to what you want the staff to be able to cast, then tells you to come back in a day and it will be finished.

Now, here's the thing. I had the choice of three colleges to choose from for a spell effect: Destruction, Illusion, and I forget the third one. Picking destruction, I had the choice of fire damage, frost damage or shock damage. I chose shock damage. By the time I got to this point, I was up to level 12, and the next day I picked up a "Mage's Staff of Shock", that did 60 (!) points of shock damage on target, 2400 magicka, and used up 60 points per casting. 60 points of shock damage drops a whole lot of critters instantly. I don't really mind, but I can't help but wonder if the effectiveness of the staff scales by the level you are when you get it made.

So my question is this: If you've done this quest, what level were you when you got it, and how good was it?

[Kassiopeia]

I just got my own Staff at level 19, I don't recall the numbers, I'll go check.

Edit: My Shock damage staff does 80 pts (!) of damage and has 3200 charges, 40 uses. Oh mama!

[snoopy369]

It definitely scales. If you're curious how this (and other things) scale, take a look at the TES Construction Set and open up the default Oblivion file.

The staff, and Wizard's Fury, scale quite significantly with when you get them. The staff of course is the more significant one, since you can always buy a better Destruction spell

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Spaced Cowboy

After that the guard arrested me for "stealing"???? and took me back to the town that I just came from and put me in jail. WTF???

Two guesses from me - one, more than likely you killed a thief that the guard was trying to kill, but isn't officially allowed for you to kill (not an enemy, just a pickpocket resisting arrest). Two, the game probably got confused with WHY you were being arrested You didn't loot the body or anything?

[Spaced Cowboy]

No the guard jumped on me before I had a chance to loot. I would have waited until he left anyway.

And the creature in question was beelining for me, guard was in the way, and he wasn't arresting him. Otherwise, I would have just let the guard handle him.

[ZargonX]

Heh... I was exploring a tomb last night, when suddenly I spy down the hallway an orc in full heavy armor wielding a red glowing axe. I slip into stealth mode and ready my bow, plugging an arrow into the back of his skull. A few more shots before he charges me, and then it's a very tough fight in melee. His axe does flame damage on impact, and he seems pretty strong in general. After some lucky healing and nimble dodging, I take him down. Suddenly a message pops up "Your Killing Has Been Noticed By Unknown Forces." What's that you say? So I finally decide to check who I just killed. "Adventurer." Whoops. Saved my game then did a quick reload to just before the battle; turns out the orc was a friendly I could talk to. Whoops. Load back up the game after the killing (I did it, have to accept the consequences!) and see that I have 1 murder listed on my stats now. Fortunately, no one back in town seems any the wiser, and no one bothered to ask where I got that nice new axe from...

[ZargonX]

Oh, and I recall someone asking a while back if NPCs loot, and I saw my first instance of it last night. Was heading into Bruma, not realizing I had some goblin-thing on my tail. He ran up to the gate, and the town guard and I took a moment out of our day to slaughter him. He dropped a Dwarven Shield and what I think was a silver mace, but before I could pick it up, the guard walked over and grabbed it. That answers that.

[Solver]

Yeah, you can sometimes encounter random adventurers also exploring dungeons. That's quite cool.

The vampirism cure is a pain the rear side, especially if you're a good character.

Spoiler:

I won't feed on anyone, because I'm good. But then there's the issue of those Grand Soul Gems. You could steal some, but I don't want to, so I'm all over the Mage guilds buying them. Also trying to find some in dungeons.

And later you need Argonian blood. Oops. Plenty of them around, of course, but don't want to attack an innocent. And unfortunately, all those bandits in dungeons are usually not Argonians, either.

[snoopy369]

Anyone notice an imbalance in levelling in the magic types?

I'm about to hit 100 conjuration ... and 60 restoration. I cast about 3-4 heal spells for every 1 conjuration, and lately have barely been conjuring at all (trying to up blade/destruction/restoration). Yet I can't up restoration meaningfully ... while still upping conjuration, in the high 90s, with very few conjurations.

I understand making alteration, mysticism, and illusion easy to level in ... but conjuration is easier than any of the three. I'm in my 40s in myst. and illusion, and 53 in alteration (casting it a LOT more, shield and such) ... None of those three are really going to be heavy casts, so they ought to be quicker levelling than restoration.

But Conjuration, if you're going to be a Conjurer (and not another mage who occasionally casts conjurations), you will cast quite often indeed... maybe not as often as restoration would be cast by a non conjurer, but much higher than the multiplier (say, about 15 restorations gets you the same as one conjuration, level wise, and that's at a higher level). As far as I can tell, blade is about as easy to level as Restoration ... and there's no way ANYONE casts one restore per blade hit. Unless you are in WAY over your head

Anyhow, I'm not sure how I'll level once I'm done with conjuration ... i'm only at 13, so I certainly need to level some ...

Spoiler:

Noticed a level 17 required quest which is probably related to the main quest, some daedric cult thing ...

My mistake was not having enough quick levelling things in my major skills. Restoration I thought would be one, but ... no. (I have Conjuration, Alchemy, Illusion, Mysticism, Alteration, Restoration, and Marksman. I thought i'd be doing a lot of arrow stuff earlier on, but my conjuration just way outpaced marksman, so I couldn't do enough damage to be relevant, and I dumped it in favor of Blade ... I'll probably have to do some practice I guess. Good thing I can still conjure up wimpy skeletons )

[Solver]

I can't manage to level Mysticism. Don't have any decent spells from it yet, but I remmeber that at least in Morrowind, I'd hadly ever cast Mysticism spells.

[Kassiopeia]

The only real need for Mysticism is either Life Detect for sneaking or Soul Trap for gems. If you don't do a lot of sneaking and if you use those stones from Elven Ruins to recharge your stuff, neither are really necessary.

[Solver]

Soultrap's good, and at least soulgems aren't littered all around the place as in Morrowind. But I haven't found a use for Detect Life yet.

[Fve Crathva]

Originally posted by Spaced Cowboy
No the guard jumped on me before I had a chance to loot. I would have waited until he left anyway.

And the creature in question was beelining for me, guard was in the way, and he wasn't arresting him. Otherwise, I would have just let the guard handle him.

This is what happens when you have a preemptive-strike policy.

SP