Topic: Oblivion (yes, I realize this is ancient) Questions

[wizall]

So I've been playing through Oblivion again (or I should say, rather, playing through it the first time with any real intent) in anticipation of Fallout.  It's amazing and I don't know what the shit my problem was the first time through.  Anyway, a few questions:

How do I go about finding lockpicks?  There were a grip early on, but now that I'm a bit in (level eight), I can't seem to get any.  Perhaps I'm better off attempting to get some kind of spell?  I'm a light-fighter type with not a lot of magical ability, but some of these locked chests I have to pass up nearly kill me in frustration.  In fact, so far it's been the only issue I've had with this character.  What to do?  Thanks.

I know I could google this question, but I always enjoy the thorough responses here. 

Peas.

[ScaryTooth]

You have to start finding "Shady Merchants". I forget what they are really called. There are a couple around the Imperial City if I remember right. If you are facing the main entrance to the city, follow the wall to the left and you'll run across one.

[Quemaqua]

There's only one guy in the Imperial City that I can remember unless you're a member of the Thieves Guild.  Otherwise you can buy them from a few shady dudes or find shitloads of them in dungeons.  Just go find a goblin dungeon, there's usually a bunch (remember, there are different types of dungeons and caves and stuff... wildlife caves won't net you much, and Daedra shrines and the like probably won't help much either, but goblins... those little bastards love them some lockpicks).

[Xessive]

I've never had any trouble with the lockpicking. It's pretty easy once you figure out the trick. As long as I have 1 lockpick I'm pretty much set. Basically all you have to do is nudge the bolt and look at the speed at which it moves, if it's slow then click. A high Security skill makes things slightly easier by increasing the chance the bolts will move slowly.

If you're having a lot of trouble with lockpicking I highly recommend The Skeleton Key. It's a Daedric artifact in the game not a cheat-plugin. Think of it as an unbreakable lockpick that boosts your Security skill to by 40 points.

[wizall]

All good suggestions, guys, thanks.  I did end up finding that guy outside Imperial City, which helped.  I'm getting a little better at lockpicking, but my security is so goddamned low that the tumblers speed changes.  Kind of a pain in the ass at these lower levels.

Since I don't really plan on focusing on security, I'm sure I'll get the Skeleton Key as soon as I get to level 10.

Dammit, this is a fun game.  I've preordered FO3--being out in a few days there's no way I'll be able to finish Oblivion by then.  Oh well, I suppose it's a pretty decent "problem" to have.

[Quemaqua]

I played that game for hundreds upon hundreds of hours and never even beat the stupid thing.  Seriously, probably 300 hours over the course of two characters (one of which I ditched before too long).  I played Morrowind for probably more than 400 hours over 3 characters and never managed to get anywhere near seeing everything, much less getting even halfway through either expansion.  The games are just ridiculous, but that's part of what makes them so awesome.

I really, really miss Morrowind.  It's one of the most incredible game experiences of my entire life despite how wonky it was in many ways, and while Oblivion was pretty, and flavored differently enough to remove the need for direct comparison IMO, it definitely didn't surpass Morrowind for me.  I think a lot of that simply had to do with the environmental differences between the two.  Still, Oblivion was a huge time sink and I loved every minute of it.  I would very much like to someday finish more of Shivering Isles, which also stands as one of the coolest RPG experiences I've had.  Effing brilliant, that was.

[Xessive]

Man, now I feel like reinstalling.. Damn it, I have to hold out for FO3!

I'm keeping myself busy with The Witcher EE for the time-being.

[Cobra951]

"Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 365 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic. "

I did consider it.  Just saying.

Thread resurrection to talk about my return to Cyrodiil.  This has little to do with the upcoming Skyrim.  I fell back into this world more randomly.  Since upgrading my 360's hard drive to 250 GB as a Christmas present (from me to me) I've been redownloading content I had deleted over time in order to keep some usable room on the tiny 20GB (14 GB usable) original drive.  I remembered "Shivering Isles" was gone when I glanced at the Oblivion game box on the shelf not long ago, and that got the ball rolling.  I reacquired SI, then noticed some DLC called "A Fighter's Stronghold" was checked as purchased.  (Scanning the Oblivion threads here refreshed my memory on that.)  So I grabbed that as well.  Remembering stability issues with playing from the disc (which is why I quit in disgust originally), I installed the game disc to the drive, and booted it up to check everything out.  A couple of weeks later, I'm still there.

What struck me right away is how much I haven't done in this game.  I spent 200 hours on it on a PC too old to provide a very good experience.  (I had to patch it to restrict it to Shader 1.2, and even so, I had sporadic crashes and serious performance issues.)  That vanished when my hard drive crashed some time ago.  Then I played it for dozens of hours on the 360 before the issues there drove me away.  Now with the added stability and overall sweetness of a full HDD install, I'm back in business.   But I digress.  The point is that so much was hardly touched, like the guild quests.  The Arcane University quest line is a full game in itself.  While I spent a great deal of time in Shivering Isles before, nothing there has been completed.  I never got close to completing the main storyline either, and that's not going to happen for a long time still.  I remember from the PC how much of a painful change the landscape goes through when Oblivion gates start popping up.  So I'm not touching the main quest line until I do everything else I want to do.

While many of the leveling complaints remain, I've learned a great deal about how to optimize level ups so that you actually improve relative to the world leveling up with you.  It's an interesting system, described in detail here.  In short, the skills you improve between levels dictate how many points (up to 5) you get for each of 3 attributes you bump up when you level.  If you can manage to get 5 points per attribute consistently, you leave your foes behind.  This introduces a new strategic element for me, and it works.  On top of gaining advantages from improved abilities (like sneaking and expanding magic abilities) leveling can be good for you in and of itself.  I suppose at some point, when the needed skills are maxed, it would be better not to level up anymore at all, easily accomplished by never sleeping.

I've completed the Arcane University quests and I'm now working on the Fighter's Guild.  After that I'll go back to Shivering Isles.  The new castle from A Fighter's Stronghold is cool, but that was way too easy to acquire.  The quest for trophies there was kinda fun.  Eventually, I'll go back to the main story, which after, what, 5 years? I have yet to experience in full.  Has anyone truly finished this thing?

[idolminds]

Was this ever posted here before? Its hilarious.

[Cobra951]

That's hysterical.  No, I hadn't seen it before.

[Ghandi]

Was this ever posted here before? Its hilarious.

Haha, that was a good read, very amusing.

[K-man]

I finished the main quest in my game.  I have barely touched the expansions though.  Finished all the DLC.  Mehrune's Razor imo is the bright spot in those packs.

I said all along that I didn't really care if I ever did finish it or not.  I just enjoyed the ride.

[Cobra951]

It was a double bummer for me yesterday when I ran into the felldew bug in Shivering Isles.  What happens is that the creatures who drop it outside of Dunroot Burrow don't spawn, ever.  This is a known (and unfixed) game ender for some of us, in SI anyway.  Can't continue the main quest line there without the stuff.  In the process of looking for a workaround, mainly along the lines of save-file hacking, I rediscovered the also-unfixed, much-worse Abomb bug.  This hits any and all Oblivion characters eventually, ending all possibility of continued play.  It can be put off over and over with some fix tools out there (like putting a coin in a meter) but that only works on PC saves.  So I have that to look forward to.  My current character is at 235 hours and counting.  The bug hits around 200 hours on PCs and 400 on consoles.

[MysterD]

For you Oblivion fanatics or those who missed Oblivion...
TES 4: Oblivion - 5th Anniversary Edition announced.

TES IV: Oblivion 5th Anniversary Edition Revealed
May 23, 2011 at 10:21 AM - OhmWrecker - 6 Comments
Listings for a 5th Anniversary Edition of Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion have begun popping up at Amazon and Best Buy. According to said listings the pack will run you $29.99, and include all of the following:

    5th Anniversary Edition includes the original award-winning game, Oblivion, the Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles expansion packs, collector's steelbook case, Making of Oblivion DVD and an Oblivion game map
    Making of Oblivion DVD includes a bonus The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim trailer
    Contains a $10 off coupon toward the purchase of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and a Skyrim strategy guide
    Protect your copy of the game with the collector's steelbook, which is decorated with Daedric symbols
    Take advantage of the full-color game map of Cyrodiil and the Shivering Isles as you embark on your quest
    Go behind the creation process of the game with the Making Of Oblivion DVD

Check out the swag:

[shock]

This thread makes me want to play Oblivion again.  Relative to Morrowind, I really hated some elements of Oblivion, but it was still a very good game.  And by now, I'm likely to have forgotten most of the quests/events.  Yay for that.  I wish I hadn't played Morrowind 1098230291 times so I could forget those quests/events too.

[Cobra951]

After getting so thoroughly hooked on Oblivion again (yes, still plugging away at it, now with a new character who just went through that felldew addiction quest which is broken for my first character) I have the opposite inclination.  I want to experience Morrowind, which I never did before.  That should run like a champ on my ancient rig.

[shock]

You won't be disappointed! (probably).

I remember loading it up a few years ago and there are tons of mods that enhance the graphics.  I might look into them, as the game is going to look pretty aged nowadays.  I wouldn't tamper too much, however, or you may lose the original feel of the game.

Have fun!  And feel free to post any impressions/thoughts/etc.

[Quemaqua]

See if you can find one of my old Morrowind mod threads somewhere. I had one or two threads somewhere that were basically huge lists of mods... I can't seem to find one here, maybe it was at The Minds Eye? Anyway, there are some great mods if you know where to look. My only warning is to watch out for some of the texture mods. Most of them do have much better textures, but they often look very weird plastered over Morrowind's default look. So be careful with those.

It's been a few years since I've looked stuff up at this point, I know there are better things out there than when I last played, but I imagine a lot of the old mods are still worthwhile. I think I have 75 or so installed when I last played the game.

[Cobra951]

I'll be happy to get it up and running well at first.  My Gen-5 Geforce will be more than fine with the default game, but I need to watch out for mods that are meant for newer cards.

[Quemaqua]

Whatever you do, start with Better Bodies and any related mods. The default models in Morrowind were awful to begin with even at release, and you don't want to play without some upgrades there (which won't affect performance or anything else). Better Bodies is, I believe, still the best body replacement, and there are a metric crapton of different head replacements. Pick and choose from those as you will, but many are very good, and since you do spend a huge chunk of the game looking at people, I highly recommend finding a couple of those fast.

[Cobra951]

Heh.  Wow.  Yes, I see that.  It runs great, of course, even with shadows and draw distance pushed way up.  But I didn't realize the game was that old (2002).  I think your suggestion is spot on.  If I can get the characters to look better, it would be a big help. 

In terms of the gameplay itself, I can see me getting deep into it.  The combat seems quite primitive also, though, and that will take some getting used to.

I find this page useful.  It tells experienced Oblivion players about the differences between it and Morrowind.  The lack of a quest target will probably hurt the most.  My memory is shit anymore.

[Quemaqua]

No worries. Morrowind isn't so terribly huge, and you can get pretty familiar with it before long. Compared to Oblivion it's really quite small, you just can't tell. My only advice is not to amass too many quests at one time, because the lack of information can make it annoying when a quest happens to require something specific or to go to a very specific place and the journal entry isn't specific enough. This doesn't happen all that often, as I can recall, but Morrowind is a much more down-and-dirty experience with a lot less hand-holding. It isn't so streamlined, and that's both a major strength and major weakness compared to Oblivion. But just exploring the world and seeing all the nooks and crannies, even though they're somewhat poorly modeled and the characters who inhabit them are awkwardly animated, is an amazing experience. There is a ton to see and do and the game offers not only huge depth but huge replayability. It really is what it's cracked up to be: a beautiful gem of a game wrapped in a somewhat ugly, dated package that has its share of bugs and inconsistencies. But those of us who love it do so wholeheartedly, warts and all.

[shock]

Great post, Que.

Relative to Oblivion and most RPGs nowadays, the questing is probably going to be a challenge at first.  I got lost a LOT.  I'm sure if I went back to play it now I would still get lost.  You really have to listen to what the questgiver tells you to do (IE take a left at the second fork in the road, then stop at the cave on the right).  If you go exploring or forget the directions, you can be wandering for a long, long time.  Don't worry too much, because wandering is half the fun in the game, but it can be annoying if you are quest-focused.

You'll get very familiar with the cities eventually.  They are fairly large, but there are enough quests in and around them that you'll get to know them.  And there's a ton of cities.  It's such a huge game.

Also: I concur with Que about quests: stick with one or two.

Per character classes, I almost always played a Stealth/Marksman or other sneaky type.  I've tried magicka-types many times, but I almost always ended up getting bored.  The system is fairly flawed in that once you run out of magicka, you can't regen it and as a caster, you're pretty much screwed when you do.  It's annoying relative to the hack and slashes that can go on forever and ever.  It's also pretty rigid from a character selection standpoint because you really have to go balls deep in magicka to make it a viable class.  IF you don't pick all the right signs, you'll be out of magicka with one Fireball (or whatever they are called, I forget the spell names ).  I'm sure you could fix this some with a mod, but that's my impression.

Sneaky types are fun because you can get fucktardedly huge amounts of money and goods by stealing, provided you know where to steal from.  The gear is much harder to find and get in the game, as some of the rarest literally can be on like 1-2 people in the entire game.  Stealing helps you get much faster access to some of the best gear, but you can definitely do it without being a thief.

All of this talk makes me want to play again!  Rawrrr!  Must study!

[K-man]

Yeah I was so excited to install a mod that increased the draw distance.  Then I got into the game and realized you could see one town from another town, and it just eliminated any scope the game had.  I uninstalled it pretty fast.

[Quemaqua]

Seriously, this sucks, I want to play so bad now just reading about it. I even have the damned thing installed on my laptop.

Haaate... I have too much to do, not to mention other games I need to play when I actually have the time.

And yeah K-man, that's a terrible mod. I remember Todd Howard saying you realize that the game is just an amusement park when you can see it all at once. But it feels huge when you can't, and still takes a decent amount of time to walk from place to place, so it's a nice compromise. In Oblivion, they compensated for the changes by giving you a horse.

Still, the game isn't small. There's tons to see and do, and lots that can't be seen from the surface anyway. Hell, Tribunal took place almost entirely underground, but for that awesome city up top.

God damn it... I'm about to cry I want to play it so bad now. =(

[Cobra951]

Sorry to keep talking about it then.   

BetterBodies, BetterClothes and Better Heads -- Better, yes!  Ah, modding games.  It has been so long.

[Quemaqua]

And that's just the start! When you get down to the nitty gritty, this game has it all, even down to little details like things that make the windows light up at night or allow you to hear weather effects like ash storms or rain when you're inside a building (and they even increase or decrease in volume when you go up or down a structure). This is why I had 75 mods installed last time, haha.

[Xessive]

Oblivion lovers, get ready to love it even more. Check out Andoran: Prologue.

[Cobra951]

I wonder how it will do in light of Skyrim coming out soon before or after.  It looks interesting.

While I'm here, a relevant observation:  I disconnected my Xbox from the internet to avoid the Spring update, which was rumored to brick some DVD drives.  (That rumor has since been dispelled.)  I haven't bothered to reconnect it yet.  In the meantime, I've played Oblivion for dozens of hours without a single crash or other technical annoyances.  60 hours minimum of time since the disconnect, without a crash--a statistic impossibility beforehand.  Just FYI for those who may find the info useful in the future.  I'm sure it has to do with the lack of online intrusions while playing, like notifications.

[Xessive]

DIYer Creates Real-Life Oblivion Tome Containing Text From Every Book In The Game

Holy.. Wow..

[MysterD]

@Xessive
HOLY CRAP!!! 

[K-man]

Gonna be honest.  I want one.

[Quemaqua]

Unfortunately I'm right there with you, buddy. And I'm not going to talk about the fact that I have a folder with a shitload of printed articles from The Imperial Library because that would reveal just how big a nerd I have on occasion chosen to be.