Oblivion is impossible!

[steph01a]

and play the game that bethesda gave you.

This has to be one of the dumbest things I've ever read. They release the tools for the modding community. Modding communities are what MAKE almost all of their games. Their intention is for you to mod it and fix what they refuse to.

The game is not 'broke' and does not need fixing out of the box. Bethesda tries to make a game that's acceptable to all ages, not just the killers and porn people. Bethesda legally cannot do some of the things done by the modders. Bethesda also had to make the game work on as many differnt types of PC as possible. They did that.

Modding for TES games started with Morrowind and was a big success. It's been continued in Oblivion and will be available in Skyrim. The modding community provides new ideas, a fresh view on a lot of things, and all the changes and additions to the game that make it one of the best RPGs ever produced. (first person shooter people may object below)

 

[TheSanityAssassin]

Go do some sidequests and when your stronger go for the mainquest...

 

[steph01a]

Or some of us work 40 hour a week jobs and can't dedicate a majority of our time to these games, yet we still want to enjoy the experience of it. Typically yes this includes a majority our time killing and not min/maxing skills, or using our valuable time in a menu screen making potions to min/max our skills.

I think all of us (except the obvious children) work for a living. I also think the "I want it all/I want it now" mentality should be reserved for quick and dirty first person shooters, not an open-ended game that requires you to develop a character and decide how to advance the character. Oblivion has over 200 hours of play time built in .. quality mods can add hundreds more. It's not a game for someone with a short attention span.

 

[Terminal Blue]

(first person shooter people may object below)

Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not a first-person-shooter person. I have my steam stats to proove it, and all my 100-hour-plus games are RPGs. However, I've been playing RPGs long enough to know that Bethesda are just not very good at making them.

Each Elder Scrolls title out of the box is a perfect example of mismanaged creativity. Each is full of good. innovative, mould-breaking ideas, yet in each case they're executed so hamfistedly and with so little regard for basic roleplaying virtues like immersion, balance and storytelling that it's just silly.

Let's go over some key problems with Oblivion as an RPG:

1) The levelling system. There's a reason that most RPGs use a level up system based on defeating enemies and completing quests. It may not be very realistic, but it rewards you for progressing in the game and experiencing the most developed and fun content. This is not to say that the Oblivion 'learn by doing' system is bad, it's not an obstruction to gameplay and with the right mods it very easily does reward you for actually playing the game. The problem is that somewhere in development someone decided to keep that godawful system whereby when you level up your skill raises are transformed into attribute raises. It could have worked if there had been a cap on attribute raises at leach level (so that you always got +5 points regardless, for example), as it stands, playing the game as intended results in a severely gimped character, wheras micromanagement of skill gains with each level will result in a far more powerful and useful character much earlier, at the cost of not being able to actually do anything while levelling.

This is not just them being innovative and us not being ready for the future. It's a bad design choice. The system is so easily fixed, and there are so many mods out there which have done it with the most basic tweaks, that it's unforgivable that Bethesda didn't pick up on the problem. I understand they are reforming the system for Skyrim. Good, how long did it take? How many games did you release without working this problem out?

2) Choice. Oblivion as a game is devoid of meaningful choice. Every storyline, quest and zone is entirely independent, and there is no real consequence to any of them. Even Morrowind, with its competing Imperial and Dunmer factions and stat requirements, was far more integrated as a game. In Oblivion there's no reason not to join any faction, in fact the game seems to expect you will join them all as various vital services require faction membership. Oblivion doesn't even care which race or class you chose, it's a purely cosmetic choice which is never referenced and any statistical differences are meaningless as you max out all your stats and become good at everything anyway (and in fact, the levelling system rewards you for training non-class skills). Who cares if you're a meatheaded warrior who thinks magic is for sissies, you can still become archmage of the mage's guild.

This also sticks a massive knife in the actual thing we're supposed to be doing, which is roleplaying. Good roleplaying games, both classic and recent, reward you to some degree for consistent roleplay, and even those which don't generally make the optimal path invisible so that, short of having access to a wiki, the player cannot immediately predict the most 'optimal' outcome. Oblivion doesn't care. You can be Listener of the Dark Brotherhood and command the Knights of the Nine and noone on either side is going to bat an eyelid, in fact the game will just lavish rewards on you, letting you have your unkillable demon horse and holy relic armour. Your character is not a person, they do not have a role in a coherent storyline. They are a confused mess of heroic and antiheroic archetypes which each individual quest line will selectively reference and invoke without any regard for anything else in the game.

I could go on about bad voice acting and the broken spellcasting system and so forth, but this would turn into some kind of mega-rant. I know my opinions are not universal, after all I thought Dragon Age 2 was one of the best roleplaying games made in recent years and yet it was totally flawed up the wazoo and most people seem to have hated it. Maybe I have a strange or overly-romanticised view of what roleplaying in a computer game should mean. Regardless, I don't think Oblivion excuses its own mistakes. It's not immersive, it doesn't tell a story, it's not a game which encourages or rewards you for roleplaying. It's a game which lets you wander around a samey few square miles of countryside while slowly developing into some kind of titanic blob-monster of meaningless stats and skills who can do (by which I mean kill) anything you want, just don't expect anyone else (or the game itself) to notice.

 

[Echo136]

Seriously, am I the only person in the world who enjoyed Oblivion without mods? The only mods I ever installed were mods to optimize performance and put portals in the mages guilds.

 

[JMeganSnow]

Don't make the mistake of abandoning the main questline and powerleveling. Then you will really learn what it feels like to be out of your depth. Stick with it, if it gets too hard turn the difficulty down.

Actually, if you want to be a real cheesemonkey in Oblivion, you do what I did: take all the magic skills as your main skills. (I like Bretons as mages, personally.) Then proceed to run around with weapons very slowly beating up all the crappy low-level monsters. Do lots of side quests, particularly the ones that drop specialized loot. Get into the Mage's Guild. Make your own spells. Power-level yourself to level 12 or so by casting spells over and over and over and over. Go do all the Daedra prince quests.

Congratulations, you're now a god.

At no point in that many hours long process is there fun to be had.

Depends on your idea of "fun". I find it hilarious to stomp everything in my path like some sort of medieval fantasy T-Rex on steroids. I don't expect to have "fun" every second, which is good, or I'd never be able to do ANYTHING.

 

[danintexas]

Lol, I'm one of the few people who loves vanilla Oblivion I guess.

I hate the mods.

I am with you man, some people make it sound as if Oblivion without mods is a crappy game.

OT: listen to the people here and then try again, Oblivion is freakin' awesome.

Uh.. it is?

Vanilla Oblivion is in no way better than the original..

Have you actually TRIED Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul?

and play the game that bethesda gave you.

This has to be one of the dumbest things I've ever read. They release the tools for the modding community. Modding communities are what MAKE almost all of their games. Their intention is for you to mod it and fix what they refuse to.

The game is not 'broke' and does not need fixing out of the box. Bethesda tries to make a game that's acceptable to all ages, not just the killers and porn people. Bethesda legally cannot do some of the things done by the modders. Bethesda also had to make the game work on as many differnt types of PC as possible. They did that.

Modding for TES games started with Morrowind and was a big success. It's been continued in Oblivion and will be available in Skyrim. The modding community provides new ideas, a fresh view on a lot of things, and all the changes and additions to the game that make it one of the best RPGs ever produced. (first person shooter people may object below)

Actually it does need fixing, there are a lot of things that make no sense. Such as level 50 bandits wearing daedric armor. Just as an example.

That's aside from all the massive dumbing down of the game compared to, say, Morrowind.

Lol, I'm one of the few people who loves vanilla Oblivion I guess.

I hate the mods.

I am with you man, some people make it sound as if Oblivion without mods is a crappy game.

OT: listen to the people here and then try again, Oblivion is freakin' awesome.

In on this group. I have the PC version and the 360 version. Love both. For the most part I run PC modless cept for a UI upgrade. I have tried a ton of mods and they all rock. But the vanilla game by itself has hundreds of hours of fun to be had.

Again.. have you actually TRIED OOO?

Yes I have. Next question?

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

One trick to make it easier is to not level up instantly when given the chance.

The enemies level with you, so if you up your other skills before taking the level, when you (and consequently they) level up, YOU have the advantage.

Also, be sure to do lot's of things with Lightning. The Daedra are the toughest enemies in the game, but are very weak to shocking.

Third, when you close an Oblivion Gate, save just before grabbing the stone. Grab it and if you get one you don't like, just reload the save until you get one you do. Again, I would wait for a shock enchantment.

In general, I agree with you. At first, I hated Oblivion. It's complicated and terribly explained. However, if you put some time into it, it can be incredibly fun.

Final Note: If you aren't having fun with the main story, join a guild! They have VERY character specific missions. If you are stealth focused, kill an innocent person (To get into the Assassins Guild) or get thrown in jail for one reason or another, (Thieves Guild). Alternatively, just walk into the Mages or Fighters Guild if you happen to be one of those.

Hope you have fun!

 

[Outright Villainy]

I just found Oblivion put this huge barrier between me and immersion. Mechanics didn't even come into it, I just didn't connect with the character, the world, or the plot on any level, so tedium set in fast. Fallout 3 improved that significantly though, and Skyrim looks to improve on it again, so I'm definitely getting Skyrim.

 

[Nydestroyer]

Ok Archery Rocks with stealth ...but gets boreing idk how long i just snuck around the whole game killing everyything right infront of its face with one arrow ..i even did it inthe arena by going around a piller...it was soooo stupid XD

 

[Leoofmoon]

I see youv also never played fallout

 

[USSR]

Along with all the other advice like difficulty tuning, complete a guild questline, you should find some rare weapons.

Youtube "How to get umbra" and follow the guide.
The sword is amazing and will definitely add to your arsenal of KICK-ASS.

 

[Leoofmoon]

Along with all the other advice like difficulty tuning, complete a guild questline, you should find some rare weapons.

Youtube "How to get umbra" and follow the guide.
The sword is amazing and will definitely add to your arsenal of KICK-ASS.

If your a crusader the knights of the nine is the best thing you can do

 

[USSR]

If your a crusader the knights of the nine is the best thing you can do

I personally wouldn't start off with the crusader quests.
You would have to Pilgrimage after doing the Dark Brotherhood (and maybe thieves guild) questlines.

That's just a pain \:

 

[the_dancy_vagrant]

If it hasn't been mentioned, alchemy is a pretty simple way to up your damage. Make health damaging poisons. Apply said poison to your melee weapon, hit your target, and run away while their health saps away. You can poison bows, too. It won't work on elementals or undead but you can, in many cases, run up to someone and hit them once and just run around like an idiot until they die.

 

[DannyJBeckett]

The whole thing about Oblivion, and Sandbox RPGs in general, is that everything is entirely subjective. I was having this discussion with a friend not too long ago; see, she was a latecomer to Oblivion too, and she's also a hardcore FPS fan. She told me that she just couldn't get into Oblivion at all. So I told her this.

The whole point of the game, is that there's only a point to it if you WANT there to be one. You don't have to follow the main quest if you don't want. You don't even have to do ANYTHING if you don't want. And this also applies to the gameplay mechanics as well. It's entirely your choice if you want to play the game on hard or easy difficulty, stealthily with bows and arrows, or all-out balls-to-the-wall hack n' slashing.

Granted, compared to some other RPGs (and definitely compared to how Skyrim looks) Oblivion is a very clunky game physics-wise (that's why I play the PC version with an assload of mods installed), but it's like all games, once you get used to it, it'll gradually get easier and easier.

I'd recommend sticking to melee combat for now, but keep trying with the bow and you'll get the swing of things.

 

[Jason DAngelo]

Here is a neat "trick"...

If you plan to use Heavy Armor and Swords... Don't pick those as your MAIN SKILLS... You don't want to level when doing common things, like fighting.

Why?

Because the creatures level with you, Der...

If your main skill is archery, and you NEED to level up, go hunt deer and rats with arrows. If you get your Heavy Armor and Sword skill up naturally, without leveling... You will be a master at every level, without the burden of having super-leveled creatures that are always above you, because you just leveled due to swinging your sword, which is now at the lowest of its levels skill.

I know it sounds backwards, but you need to pick main skills which are things you are NOT going to be good at, which you will find, that you NEED more often than hack-n-slash, later on... Like magic, reincarnation, invisibility, speechcraft, light-armor, harvesting...

Case in point... You are now level 100, and can't harvest needed supplies... You go broke buying them, or waste days questing for them in drops from creatures.

Case in point... You are level 4 in the first gate, then 5, then 20... so are the creatures... Yet your swings don't seem to have any more damage, and now you don't know how to make that primo head-shot with a bow and arrow, because you leveled-up by sword and shield. If your archer skill was high, something you need for the first-hit, then your natural hack-and-slash which was high, but not leveling you, will work more when they get near.

Case in point... You are now surrounded by hundreds of magical creatures... Hope you have fire-resist, lightning-resist, fatigue-resist, unburden, health-potions and a lot more in your inventory... because you didn't keep magic as something that gave you massive mana, which would have protected you more with similar spells, without having to drink a billion potions... (Which would also leave you with no money, having to keep buying potions, since you probably are not making them too. Most best weapons can/will be found, not purchased. However, common poitions are not common-enough, and the best scrolls and potions are nothing compared to what the wave of your hand can do.)

In the end, it is an RPG, just not classic RPG, as you also need skill and strategy in playing, something all hack-n-slashes do not require. Like life... you have to "Feel like you are cheating to win", without actually cheating. That is the skill. Find an obstacle and bash it, without taking the obvious failing path over and over again. Try a new path, try a new method, walk away and come back when you have a clear mind, or just think backwards.

Heck, I was a master at causing creatures to commit suicide until it just wasn't fun anymore. Making them walk off ledges to get me, or causing them to walk into one another's fire-balls. Making them swim down and drown. Eventually, I learned how to fight too. Once I changed my main skills, and made it more logical to reality... Boosting my weakest attributes while keeping my naturally strongest skills to the fate of my actual skill, without helping them. (They are fine, why do they need boosting? Why do you need to be level 100, 200, 300? There is no reward for being old and powerless in 90% of your skills, and being a master at 10%... Average guys win more than specialists, in any field. Specialists just have the ability to charge more. No-one is paying you anyways, so strive to be average.)