Oblivion: Elder Scrolls IV - PC Roleplaying Game

[sabotai]

Just got home with the game waiting for me. About to install it now.....what? I have a WoW raid tonight? ......No I don't. The rest of my guild might, but not me.

[Godzilla Blitz]

I've played about 20 hours total so far. Having a blast.

Still undecided on the scaled combat debate, but I am wishing I made alchemy a minor skill on the first character I tried. It's easy to move up in alchemy, and if I level up via alchemy I have a harder time fighting.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Bee

opposite. Larger textures are better quality, smaller textures will improve performance.

Thanks Bee.

[LionsFan10]

I have a question, I have a mid-level PC nothing spectacular a gig of ram, 2.8 ghz processor. Should I even bother buying this game? Will it even run on a system like mine? I really would like to buy it, but I'm scared I won't be able to run it. Thoughts?

[Deattribution]

Originally Posted by LionsFan10

I have a question, I have a mid-level PC nothing spectacular a gig of ram, 2.8 ghz processor. Should I even bother buying this game? Will it even run on a system like mine? I really would like to buy it, but I'm scared I won't be able to run it. Thoughts?

What kind of video card are you running? I think it's scalable enough to run on most mid-level machines, you just may not get the super-duper graphics others have.

[LionsFan10]

ATI Radeon 9600 XT (something like that, may not be "XT" but it's a step above the Pro version of the same video card)

[Deattribution]

I'd assume you'd be okay with the amount of memory, and your processor you fall just shy of the recommended (but meet the minimum requirements) and your video card, the 9600 series is supported...

Try going to - http://www.srtest.com/referrer/srtest


Select Oblivion, they recommend that site on the official forums if you are uncertain if your system will run it.

[Deattribution]

Dola - here are the requirements


Recommended:

* 3 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
* 1 GB System RAM
* ATI X800 series, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series, or higher video card

Minimum System Requirements:

* Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows XP 64-bit
* 512MB System RAM
* 2 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
* 128MB Direct3D compatible video card and DirectX 9.0 compatible driver;
* 8x DVD-ROM drive
* 4.6 GB free hard disk space
* DirectX 9.0c (included)
* DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
* Keyboard, Mouse

Supported Video Card Chipsets:

* ATI X1900 series
* ATI X1800 series
* ATI X1600 series
* ATI X1300 series
* ATI X850 series
* ATI x800 series
* ATI x700 series
* ATI x600 series
* ATI Radeon 9800 series
* ATI Radeon 9700 series
* ATI Radeon 9600 series
* ATI Radeon 9500 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 7800 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 6600 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 6200 series
* NVIDIA GeForce FX series

[LionsFan10]

Excellent information, thank you much. Guess I'll go ahead and give it a shot anyway.

[dubb93]

Been playing this alot recently. Got completely stuck with my first character on the mage guild quests so I went and bought the guide.

My first character was pretty worthless. I tried to make a custom class warrior/theif hybrid. What I ended up with was a guy that couldn't heal himself(no magicka at all, 2 or three times healing and it was all gone. Plus the amount healed was nothing), sucked at combat, couldn't block anything and couldn't pickpocket anyone. About the only thing he was good for was hauling mass amount of loot out of dungeons, opening locks and buttering people up. After looking at my new guide I decided to start completely over and build a character designed in the book.

My new guy is pretty bad ass and I'm having 200X the fun I was with my first guy.

"Pure War Wizzard

Race: Male High Elf

Specialization: Mage

Class Attributes: Intelligence, Willpower

Race Bonuses: Fortified Maximum Magicka; Weakness to Fire, Frost, and Shock; Resist Disease

Birthsign: lady (+10 Willpower, +10 Endurance

Attribute start level

Strenght: 30
Intelligence: 60
Willpower: 60
Agility: 40
Speed: 30
Endurance: 50
Luck: 50
Personality: 40
Health: 100
Magicka: 220
Fatigue: 150

Magor Skills

Alchemy: 40
Alteration: 45
Conjuration: 40
Destruction: 45
Illusion: 40
Mysticism: 45
Blade: 25

This character is a spellcaster with strong Destruction spells who can survive long enough in melee to finish off enemies with the enchanted blades he'll create, the Bound Blades he'll summon, and the magic blades he finds in loot. Shifting to Blade gives him time to regenerate Magicka for his next spell attacks. It's a fun, active, risky mage play style."

If you are like and are on the fence about buying the guide b/c you don't like to follow a script I still say get it. It helps you out when you are COMPLETELY stuck and gives you awesome starting characters that could make the game more fun for you.

[Fouts]

After getting tired of trying to cure my vampirism on my crusader, I started a barbarian type that ended up joining the dark brotherhood. Some fun quests from that guild. I thought my barbarian wouldn't be stealthy enough to be successful, but he is doing just fine. Sneaking back into the imperial prison was awesome!

[Terps]

I'm about 12-13 hours into the game. I closed 2 gates to Oblivion already, and have found two more out in the middle of nowhere that I haven't gotten around to yet.

I became the Grand Champion in the Imperial City arena without ever losing. Right now I'm doing a quest for the Dark Brotherhood I think.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by LionsFan10

I have a question, I have a mid-level PC nothing spectacular a gig of ram, 2.8 ghz processor. Should I even bother buying this game? Will it even run on a system like mine? I really would like to buy it, but I'm scared I won't be able to run it. Thoughts?

I'm close to yours:
P4 2.6
2gb RAM
9800 Pro

My game is extremely playable on medium settings (800x600, some video options turned off). I've started tweaking things (thinning the grass out, modifying some other parameters in the .ini file) to improve the clarity of things at a distance, but even without doing that I've been happy. Getting about 30fps outside, and it never dips below 20. For an rpg, that is fine for me and things seem smooth.

Having said that, the video card seems to be a critical factor in this game. I'm guessing that with a 9600-family card you'd need to be a step down from my settings. It probably wouldn't be beautiful, but it should be playable.

[ISiddiqui]

It seems that proper FPS is in the eye of the beholder . I'm like you Godzilla Blitz, 20-30 fps is fine for me in this game, but some on the official forums because its a travesty that they can only get 20-30 fps!

I probably could get far more FPS, but I really want all the graphical bells and whistles I can (I play 1280*1024, with HDR on and very high graphic settings).

[PraetorianX]

Originally Posted by Fouts

After getting tired of trying to cure my vampirism on my crusader, I started a barbarian type that ended up joining the dark brotherhood. Some fun quests from that guild. I thought my barbarian wouldn't be stealthy enough to be successful, but he is doing just fine. Sneaking back into the imperial prison was awesome!

Like I said earlier in the thread, just go to an alter at a temple (like in Bruma, or even the Priory) and viola, you're cured.

As long as you didn't wait to long and become a full blown vamp. In that case...I don't know what you'd do.

and the DB is the most interesting guild in the game, easily. And Shadowmare is the best horse in the game,

[jeff061]

This game takes up too much time, not since EQ1 has an hour gone by so quickly. Even Civ can't compete. It's awesome though.

[Bearcat729]

Originally Posted by PraetorianX

Like I said earlier in the thread, just go to an alter at a temple (like in Bruma, or even the Priory) and viola, you're cured.

As long as you didn't wait to long and become a full blown vamp. In that case...I don't know what you'd do.

and the DB is the most interesting guild in the game, easily. And Shadowmare is the best horse in the game,

If you've ever stolen anything then you won't be able to use the altar for blessing.

[Brillig]

Originally Posted by dubb93

If you are like and are on the fence about buying the guide b/c you don't like to follow a script I still say get it. It helps you out when you are COMPLETELY stuck and gives you awesome starting characters that could make the game more fun for you.

Eh, I'm going to have to disagree - most guides are pretty worthless. Your great character that you got from the guide, for example, is pretty much the same as a custom build I posted earlier in the thread. Except it includes Alchemy as a major skill, which is a *definite* problem as Alchemy is insanely easy to level up, which raises your character level without really improving your combat ability.

In fact, the most pure min-max builds involve using major skills that are a) selectively useable and b) not combat related. For example, Acrobatics - as long as you can keep from jumping reflexively, it's easy to only level when you need to. Now you do have a problem with your combat skills being sub-par to start with, but you can level them up while still staying at level 1 (or whatever level you like).

Edit: Oh, and what keeps you from using a chapel altar is having an Infamy of more than zero. You can steal as much as you like.

[sabotai]

I was walking back to the town of Bruma after killing a theif who claimed to be a vampire hunter. I spotted a dead deer in the distance. At first, I thought it was one I might have killed the previous day. However, after reaching the dead animal, I found an arrow sticking out of it. I always retrieve my arrows. Not one of mine.

My head snapped up and looked around. I saw someone on the road to the distance. He or she was on the ground. As I approached, I spotted several arrows sticking out of what I now knew was an imperial guard. I crouched down and looked around. I still could not see anything or anyone around.

I reached the imperial guard's body and looted the arrows. I did not have room in my backpack for the man's armor, which I would have looted and sold to a merchant without thinking twice about it.

I heard a woman yell off in the distance. Still crouched and moving slowly, I headed towards the sound. There she was over a small hill. A bandit. She had spotted another deer to kill. She pulled back her bow and fired another arrow. There was a good chance this was the bandit that killed the guard.

I armed an arrow on my bow and slowly inched forward. She had not spotted me. No one spots me when I don't want them too. Inched closer and closer. She fired off another arrow and the deer was dead. Inched closer and closer......I fired my arrow. Bullseye, right in the head. She drops dead to the ground.

I looked around to see if she had any friends. I see no one. I walk over to her body and find some silver arrows and shiney silver bow. I took the bow and left my worn out iron bow behind. I wouldn't be needing that anymore.

One more check around for any other bandits. It was clear and I continued on to Bruma.



God I love this game.

[Warhammer]

How good was Morrowwind? If I'm not sure I can run this, should I pick that up in the meantime (til the upgrade, etc.)

[Antmeister]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

How good was Morrowwind? If I'm not sure I can run this, should I pick that up in the meantime (til the upgrade, etc.)

If you can't run the game, you won't be disappointed with Morrowind. You can get the Game of the Year Edition for $20. That includes the two expanisions. And you can get a slew of mods that will really enhance the game even further. That is one game where you can get more caught up with the side quests than the main storyline. Very good game.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by Brillig

Eh, I'm going to have to disagree - most guides are pretty worthless. Your great character that you got from the guide, for example, is pretty much the same as a custom build I posted earlier in the thread. Except it includes Alchemy as a major skill, which is a *definite* problem as Alchemy is insanely easy to level up, which raises your character level without really improving your combat ability.

In fact, the most pure min-max builds involve using major skills that are a) selectively useable and b) not combat related. For example, Acrobatics - as long as you can keep from jumping reflexively, it's easy to only level when you need to. Now you do have a problem with your combat skills being sub-par to start with, but you can level them up while still staying at level 1 (or whatever level you like).

Edit: Oh, and what keeps you from using a chapel altar is having an Infamy of more than zero. You can steal as much as you like.

I assure you this guide isn't crap. For someone like you who obviously is a vetern of the Elder Scrolls it may not be a smart purchase. But for someone like me who is playing the series for the first time the guide has about 50 pages devoted to just alchemy/stats/weapons/characters/magic. It explains each in depth and how it works in the game. It also explains what the stats do in the game.

Obviously my first character was flawed as I didn't exactly know what each attribute and stat did. After reading the guide(not the walk through part) I knew what I wanted and knew that was the character I wanted. Anyway I'm about 9 hours in and a level 5 and I haven't had any problems in combat. In fact I haven't died a single time, unlike my 1st character where I died atleast 3-4 times in each dungeon. For someone like me the guide wasn't "pretty worthless." As I said, it increased my enjoyment out of the game greatly. And I don't plan on touching the walk-through unless I'm completely stuck. Which hasn't happened with my new character yet.

[Brillig]

My point was, you could have just asked here and saved yourself the twelve bucks.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by Brillig

My point was, you could have just asked here and saved yourself the twelve bucks.

Eh, its not like that is my life savings. And it was good read to get me started. I think if I would have asked all the questions I had on here I would have had some peoples heads spinning.

I assure you my questions went beyond "I need a good character, please supply me with one." I feel like I got my moneys worth out of the guide already. And that is saying something because this is the first guide I've actually purchased since....well I don't think I've ever bought one before. And that is dating back to the NES days.

[Brillig]

Heh, no problem, we've already seen a certain degree of testiness over questions.

I'm just on permanent jihad against game guides. Too many damn game companies decide they can skimp on doing the manual because "the guide can cover it." F'ing wankers.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Brillig

My point was, you could have just asked here and saved yourself the twelve bucks.

I think it was jb asking questions and he was scolded..

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

How good was Morrowwind? If I'm not sure I can run this, should I pick that up in the meantime (til the upgrade, etc.)

I pick Game of the Year edition up the other day at Best Buy store for 19.99. It comes with two expansion.

Very solid game and there is great mods to make the bodies, head, etc look even better.

Very deep Game.

I have Oblivion but not going to play it until i get my dvd rom player and Upgrade on my geforce 2 32 mb graphic agp card

[Galaril]

I just got the strat guide and it has "Everything" in it. I am glad I picked it up since I don't have the time to wander around all night looking for one NPC that I need to find but don't know where to look.

[Godzilla Blitz]

This game rocks. After 25 hours of play, I can definitively say that this game is one of my top ten all-time fun games.

I started a new character last night and spent two hours or so in one little dungeon on the outskirts of the capital. The mood, the fights, the traps, everything, was top notch. I am still so amazed at how gritty and real the game feels. I'm still not finished with this one dungeon, as it just keeps going on and on, but it is so much fun. I've been frightened out of my wits a couple of times, had three of four incredible battles, and spent so much time on the edge of my seat, wondering what's going to be around the next corner. As far as I can tell the place is just some random dungeon, but it is so polished and detailed. As I was running in terror from some zombies that I stumbled onto, I realized that I had gotten my money's worth on this one dungeon alone.

And I'm guessing there's got to be dozens of these small dungeons scattered around the world. Simply amazing the sheer amount of goodness they have packed in this game.

[Fouts]

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

And I'm guessing there's got to be dozens of these small dungeons scattered around the world. Simply amazing the sheer amount of goodness they have packed in this game.

Yep! Huge world. Also, you get quests to enter some of these dungeons and bring something back or rescue somebody. I recovered a family heirloom from one of them. Some mace that I turned in, but thinking back... maybe I shoulda used it for awhile.

[Eaglesfan27]

I've spent at least 75% of my time in those small dungeons, elven ruins, mines, etc. They are well detailed and interesting and have unique feel to them. I'm willing to bet there are close to a 100 of those types of dungeons. I've spent at least 10 hours just exploring small dungeons like that. I agree that they are very well done and this game is quickly climbing up my list of all time favorite games.

[jeff061]

I've spent around 10-15 hours total so far and it feels like I just started. Mostly ascending the Thieves and Mages guild, and a couple quests here and there. Haven't really started exploring much even. I did the painting quest, which was really cool. However I was too low a level(or not skilled in combat enough), and it was real difficult and no way to leave. I do get a lot of crash to desktops, about 7 or 8 an hour, which is annoying. But saving and getting back into the game is quick, so it doesn't take away from the game to much and hopefully will be patched soon.

[Eaglesfan27]

Maybe I've just been really lucky, but I haven't had any crashes or lockups.

[Bee]

I haven't had a crash or lockup either.

So far the game is very fun, but I'm not sure I'm happy with the class I picked. I might go back and start a new character since I'm not very far into the game yet.

[Yellow5]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I've spent at least 75% of my time in those small dungeons, elven ruins, mines, etc. They are well detailed and interesting and have unique feel to them.

Yep, best part of the game and an improvement over Morrowind. Like you, I've spent hours going through them and love every minute of it.

I've also dropped more music into the game and it's awesome. Go into the Oblivion\Data\Music\ folder and you can add music for battles, exploring, etc. by dropping any mp3 into those dirs.

[Galaril]

I have for the first time gone over to Oblivion from the one of the gates. And it really is not a place you want to spendalot of time in. I had to spend about three hours palying in there trying to accomplish a objective and felt unclean, almost defiled after playing there. That is immersion.

[jeff061]

Yes, the game is certainly not a one trick pony when it comes to immersive environments. Most games of this graphical splendor would suffer from that.

[GrantDawg]

I can't get the hang of it. Same problem I had with Morrowind. The system is just too "open." I never feel like I'm picking the right character traits, and I just can't get the combat system. I want to left click to pick up things and keep accidently attacking people. I so want to like this game, but it just doesn't like me.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I can't get the hang of it. Same problem I had with Morrowind. The system is just too "open." I never feel like I'm picking the right character traits, and I just can't get the combat system. I want to left click to pick up things and keep accidently attacking people. I so want to like this game, but it just doesn't like me.

Practice, grasshopper, practice.

When I first started playing, I kept hitting the wrong button to jump (I think it was the button from Morrowind?) After an hour or four, I finally got a handle on the controls.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Practice, grasshopper, practice.

When I first started playing, I kept hitting the wrong button to jump (I think it was the button from Morrowind?) After an hour or four, I finally got a handle on the controls.

But I don't want to practice, I want to have fun. This is why I don';t play first person shooters anymore, and why I've never enjoyed RTS games much. I'm not very dexterous, so games that require quick button-pushing and mouse control just end up aggravating me. I like games that concentrate on the strategy side and less on button-pushing.

[jeff061]

Make sure you config the controls to your liking, I changed pretty much everything except block and attack.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by jeff061

Make sure you config the controls to your liking, I changed pretty much everything except block and attack.

And block. Grrr...There should be an "auto-block" option. I hate that crap.

[Bee]

Originally Posted by jeff061

Make sure you config the controls to your liking, I changed pretty much everything except block and attack.

Me too. Since I'm a lefty, I moved all the control keys over to the numberpad and I've had no problems.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

And block. Grrr...There should be an "auto-block" option. I hate that crap.

Screw that! They had auto-block in Morrowind and it sucked compared to Oblivion's manual block.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

But I don't want to practice, I want to have fun. This is why I don';t play first person shooters anymore, and why I've never enjoyed RTS games much. I'm not very dexterous, so games that require quick button-pushing and mouse control just end up aggravating me. I like games that concentrate on the strategy side and less on button-pushing.

I found even the practice fun. Yeah, I didn't jump a few times when I wanted to, but eventually I got used to the control scheme. It isn't too complex really. I understand killing people by accident is much worse. As far as block, I would hate auto-block. I just hold down the block button if I really need to block and I find the strategy of when to block and when not to block a fun part of the game. I'm sorry that you aren't enjoying it, and I'm not very dexterous either, but this game seems much less fast twitch to me than most FPS type games.

[jbmagic]

In this game, when you level up does the monsters level up to the same level you currently are?

Or the monsters all different levels depending on the area your located at?

Not real clear how the leveling works for the monster you face.

[Yossarian]

Monsters level with you. non(really) spoiler example is that I was originally attacked by wolves when wandering, now it's boars.

One thing to be aware of is that you level when your major skills grow by 10 points (in any combination of them). So if your major skills are athletics, acrobatics and speechcraft you will level up and not be any better placed to defend yourself - yet the beasts will also level up.

I guess there's a strategy there for someone - choose obscure major skills and seperately level up all combat skills - you could be level 3 with level 10-era combat abilities. Of course that would utterly ruin the game but.. just sayin'

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Yossarian

Monsters level with you.

That's not entirely true. What happens is that as you gain in levels, higher level monsters spawn in the game. Rats will never reach level 50, for example, you'll just start facing harder monsters.

The only creatures that do scale are the highest creatures in the level list (such as -2 or +1 level to PC) and the guards (always +10 to PC).

[Yossarian]

That's not entirely true.

Apologies. Give that man a banana.

The guard captain is +15, the rest are +10 (according to a random thread on the official forums)

[sabotai]

Always +10 than you, huh? That actually kind of sucks. I would like to become such a good assassin that I could pretty much take out several guards as I loot the castle of all of its riches.

But oh well. I'll find other ways to deal with the guards....mwahahaha.