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Let's Play: Oblivion - Shiverwinter Islepeaks

Joined
Jul 30, 2006
Messages
5,933
Location
Scotland
Some of you may recall, back near the end of 2006, I reviewed the Oblivion DLC with help from my good buddy Nick the Imperial. Now, most of the Codex has since slipped into tired apathy regarding Oblivion (myself included), but Astromarine's LP inspired me to download a ludicrous amount of mods and actually try once more to get some fun out of the game, and at the same time finally get around to that Shivering Isles review/playthrough I'd promised. However, I was kind of scared that playing as Nick would draw him back here again, and I'm assuming he's at least a level 74 Imperial Freelance Knight by now, so I'll be using a fresh new character.
Since I'm running FCOM (Francesco's, Martigen's Monster Mod, Oscuro's, and WarCry - what the fuck is with all these people naming their mods "MY MOD", they didn't do that in my day), which tone down the level scaling and make it so that some enemies actually pose a challenge, I'm assuming that venturing into the Shiverwinter Roofleisles themselves would be fairly suicidal straight from the off, so I'm going to make my way to it in a sort of roundabout, meandering manner, run through a few user-made quests and give a quick "review" of them in the meantime. There's one or two that actually sound fairly intriguing.

So, since Nick the Imperial has been quietly retired, who will take up his mantle as Imperial Freelance Knight and Champion of Cyrodiil? One powerful, ancient, capable of fighting fire with fire and...

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Yeah okay I made kingcomrade the pink-haired Nord

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THIS IS AN AXE
Kingcomrade discovers a few new weapons and items on his trip through the caves, but nothing particularly interesting. Which is probably a good thing, given the penchant of modders to throw in silly shit like flaming swords and suchlike. I think there were a good few new items, all of which blend in fairly well, and while it doesn't take any great skill to blend in with Bethesda content it's still a plus point for... whatever mod actually added this stuff.

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BETHESDA WHAT HAVE YOU DONE

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And here we encounter our first, implacable foe: the unforgiving character limit.

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, as kc might say.

Anyway, kingcomrade makes his way out of the caves with no difficulty, and I can't deny that (first time playing a heavy character) it's goddamn satisfying hitting stuff with a huge warhammer. And I'm sure it will remain entertaining for at least another twenty minutes.

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I swear those long-distance textures look a lot better than they did before

Alright, apologies in advance and bear with me for a bit, but I'm going to hit up a ruin first of all to see what it's like with being modded out the wazoo and all. Will get down to actual questing etc in the next update.
First level is mostly made up of bandits, and the changes are noticable immediately. Noticable, in particular, in that there's a huge hairy "bandit leader" who smacks kc all around the room with one or two swings, and who takes me roughly four reloads to beat. I then have to spend a long time attempting to navigate a group of tricky archers.
This ain't your grandma's Oblivion.
Anyway, next level down - or did I even go down a level, I forget - is mostly undead. Average skeletons are average and weak. Then I encounter this bugger.

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He's called a Postule or Pulser or Pornstar or something like that. He's a zombie who has red fumes coming off him, glows, runs really fast, and, for some reason or another, carries a fork.
Sufficiently unnerved, I continue further into the ruin. I enter a small room with four cage-type things around the side, each containing a fairly strong skeleton. Three are dealt with.

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This one is not.
Giant, red, and carrying a huge fucking sword, he runs fast, kills me in one hit, and can't be hurt. I don't mean he's immune to normal weapons, there's no message telling me that; it's just that when I hit him, a damage bar doesn't appear. He can't be hurt.

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Yeah I ran away pretty fast.

Anyway, by this point, I was genuinely starting to enjoy myself. The game basics were the same, the same stupid stupidities were still in place, but it was challenging, the AI seemed to be improved, and - partly because of the mindset I went into it with, perhaps, compared to "this is going to be the best RPG ever" and "I hate this game" on my first and second plays - it was exceeding my expectations and my horrible memories.
Either way, I was enjoying it. A bit.
And then this.

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I heard... I'm in... I don't think I need to fucking say anything here.
Fuck you, Bethesda. Fuck you.

Anyway, trying to pretend that didn't happen, I enter another room where I get to open up various wall panels for items/enemies. I encounter a chest that, for some reason, I "don't have time to lockpick/bash". I encountered one of these earlier. I can access other chests normally, what's so different about these ones? Ah well.
Behind one of the panels, I encounter these.

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Hard to make out? Yes. Especially when they're raping your face in motion. Anyway, they appear to be comprised of one angry midget skeleton with a meat cleaver, and two other angry midget skeletons riding other angry midget skeletons and throwing fireballs and lightning at me. They're also all carrying skulls.

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Look at it. The little bastard chibbed me when I was hiding from the mages. It's a fucking homicidal midget skeleton with a meat cleaver. That's amazing.

Continuing on, I ignore that particular wall panel and, having retrieved the Varla Stone of the ruin (1000-gold-value trinket), I begin to make my way out through the, ah, shortcut-type way. Along that route, there's a powerful necromancer - in vanilla Oblivion, he's alone, he's not very powerful, and he's easily done away with. With these mods, I'd put him on a level capable of enslaving whole nations, and he has a ghost bodyguard, who happens to have a ghost dog.

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Now, this really does present something of a problem. I can't run past them, because the dog chases me down and eats me. I can't kill them, because the necromancer is a tank and the ghosts are immune to my weapons. I can't even lead them back into the traps behind me, because for some reason those refuse to work even on the necromancer.
So, citizens of Fair Codexia!, should I:

1) Drop all my loot and run for it
2) Go back the way I came (a very long and tedious process)
3) SOMEHOW fight them (please tell me how I could do this)
4) kingcomrade

Choices and consequences you bastards

Anyway, yeah, bear with me. I'll head to the Roofling Isles as soon as I get out, just to test the waters. Should at least make for an interesting experience, at least.
 

easychord

Liturgist
Joined
May 3, 2008
Messages
182
Location
UK
Run around in circles until your athletics skill is high enough to run past them. That's what a true hero would do.
 

Kingston

Arcane
Joined
Jan 13, 2007
Messages
4,392
Location
I lack the wit to put something hilarious here
Did anyone else ever think that the alchemy icon in the inventory was a nightcap(the hat kind)monster with two dots for eyes, a bigger dot for a nose and some sort of nebula for a mouth?

Also, cut to the chase, get to the Chilly Isles already!
 

Jaime Lannister

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 15, 2007
Messages
7,183
Roleplay a housekeeper and rearrange the skeletons you killed to make the dungeon look aesthetic.
 

WalterKinde

Scholar
Joined
Dec 27, 2006
Messages
524
live to fight another day , run the other way like the hounds of hell are after you (which they are) its what was required in Morrowind after all.
 

Faceless

Novice
Joined
Apr 30, 2008
Messages
91
My first bit of advice is to download the DarNified UI:
http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10763

Other than that I can't really help you... I can't imagine what mods you must have installed to be having so much difficulty with that Necromancer. Maybe one that applies static levels?

As an aside, if you (like me) find Oblivion's levelling system retarded, you might want to try this: http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13879

It makes it so your stats automatically increase alongside your skills, removing the need to micro-manage your skill increases to get those +5s per level. You'll need OBSE for it, but frankly if you're trying to play Oblivion again with mods, you should have it anyway because there are a lot of mods that require it that fix some of the more retarded of Oblivion's design decisions.
 

Wyrmlord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
28,886
If your Acrobatics and Atheletics are at Apprentice level, jump over them and run away, maybe? It looks like you are wearing heavy armour, so perhaps you may have to strip down and put the armour in your backpack in order to run away better.

When you enter Shivering Isles, make sure to go to the Ebroca dungeon, if you find it. It's very very well designed.
 
Joined
Jul 30, 2006
Messages
5,933
Location
Scotland
ghostdog said:
This LP should be played in IRONMAN mode.

Go away I keep running into random monsters that OHKO me

If your Acrobatics and Atheletics are at Apprentice level, jump over them and run away, maybe? It looks like you are wearing heavy armour, so perhaps you may have to strip down and put the armour in your backpack in order to run away better.

Why the hell did that work that makes no sense
Anyway thanks

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We return to our brave, shirtless hero, his beautifully sculpted man-flesh glistening in the Bloom. Having stripped off and ran past the powerful necromancer, looting his bounteous chest en route, he escapes (barely) and returns to the Imperial City for a shopping spree. He sells shit, buys new armour and an expensive battleaxe, and heads out, taking the hint that nobody cares about his wandering around and just want to see what awaits in the mountains of madness.

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Here be Wackee

I don't think I'll bother narrating the next few screenshots. I don't think they require narration.

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Anyway, I entered, finding myself in a small stone room with what appeared to be a clerk's table in front of me. The man was named Haskill, and explained that Sheogorath was seeking a champion, blah blah blah, laced with what were presumably attempts at dry wit.

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However, whether this was intentional or not, I had to laugh.

Anyway, he offered to let me into the Shiverwintering Rooflelands, but I had to temporarily decline, for I remembered that I had left something important in the Imperial City. Fast travelling away, kingcomrade was soon reunited with his closest ally and only friend in the world...

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Tearfully murdering him, kc - henceforth referred to as "King Chief" - comes into possession of the whateverthefuckit'scalled armour, as well as one of those Ghost things.

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Sadly, the Ghost had to be left behind - it weighs a veritable fuckton, and while it casts feather when worn, it also comes with a whole host of effects that render it very good for travelling but utterly useless for combat, so I was forced to leave it where it was. Sad.

Anyway, King Chief was not finished yet, and headed to the other side of the area to pick up a few other items to further increase his chances within the Shiverloller Nightpeaks 2...

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King Chief - henceforth referred to as "Kingchief Sephiroth" - and his Buster Sword set out once more, brave and resolute, to deal great justice out unto the denizens of Oblibilone.

Entering the gate, I told Haskill that I was ready to accept the challenge and so on. He then stood up, touched the door, faded away, and then the room exploded into butterflies with a flash of light. It was actually a pretty cool and fluid effect, but for some reason, none of the screenshots I took between entering the isles and the end of my first dungeon crawl actually... appeared anywhere, so you'll have to take my word for that.

Anyway, Kingchief Sephiroth wandered down the path for a while, encountering a couple of "grummites" - stupid fish-people things that die in two blows, suggesting that the difficulty-adjusting mods do not apply in the Rooflepeaks. None of my screenshots turned out, as I said, which is a shame - the landscape's fairly nice, even if it does smell a bit too much of Morrowind (Jesus fuck, I went over and took more and they didn't appear either, what the hell). Anyway, I discovered a dungeon on my way to the Gates of Madness which would lead me further into the Lands of the LOL, and entered eagerly, wondering what I would discover inside.
It sucked.
It was a generic fucking Oblivion dungeon with grummites instead of bandits. And it was full of this "Madness Ore" stuff. I don't know what this is supposed to do, but it was all rather a waste of time.

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Kingchief Sephiroth shows off his beautiful chocobo. Yes, the rest of the dungeon is that generic, without the blue torches.

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Kingchief Sephiroth reviews his journal thus far. He heads to the settlement built around the gate, known as Passwall - however, he quickly establishes that this is a lie.

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Hi Seyda Neen
Kingchief Sephiroth converses briefly with a Dunmer, who is disappointingly sane, and a Redguard who is disappointingly sane apart from his stupid haircut and his hilariously fruity purple armour. After a few vague hints at how scary the Gatekeeper is, both of them tear off along a path. Shrugging and assuming that this is normal behaviour in these here parts, Kingchief Sephiroth follows.

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Reaching a small, flat area in front of the Gates of Fatness, Kingchief Sephiroth witnesses the Gatekeeper kicking a group of adventurers around in an incredibly awkward-looking fashion. See, he hits them and knocks them flying, but they remain in a standing position throughout, and immediately run back at him after landing. It doesn't look visceral or impressive. It looks stupid. Perhaps we would be more forgiving of Bethesda's faults if they didn't constantly flaunt them at us.

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Anyway, returning to the settlement, Kingchief Sephiroth encounters a burly Nordic warrior. After exchanging a hearty, manly, heterosexual hug, the two sweaty Nords get down to business, and Kingchief Sephiroth's new BFF reveals his cunning plan to dispose of the Gatekeeper. And by "cunning" I mean "really bloody weird". He wants to break into "The Garden of Flesh and Bone", take the bones of previous/failed Gatekeepers, and make them into arrows with which to kill the current one.

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Entering the local inn, Kingchief Sephiroth finds a book describing the effects of Global Warming, Peak Oil and what happens if you don't vote for Ron Paul. Taking this as a chilling reminder of the evils of man and the doom we have brought upon ourselves through our capitalist greed, Kingchief Sephiroth heads upstairs in a reflective, sombre mood. He voted for Nader.

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And, on that pleasant final note, we end this chapter, with two possible options to take to deal with the Gatekeeper. Choices! The consequences? Probably entirely the same for both. Ah, well.
 

Herbert West

Arbiter
Joined
Nov 19, 2007
Messages
1,293
Please change the name back to Kingcomrade. Kinchief Sepiroth sounds to much bethshedish and not bungieish at all, so there's no point. Other than that, jolly good work! I've never thought that I'll enjoy oblibion in any form or shape. Whatever you choose to do with the keeper, I'll laugh as much as I've been laughing so far.
 

kingcomrade

Kingcomrade
Edgy
Joined
Oct 16, 2005
Messages
26,884
Location
Cognitive Elite HQ
I would like to remind you that I should be using Warhammers.

edit- wait, scratch that, I didn't read all of the thing before commenting. lulz
 

bat_boro

Arcane
Joined
Nov 22, 2006
Messages
1,531
you created a monster using Bethesda's face generator?
Yes, I was shocked the first time it happened, too.

Oh, wait, you're actually not talking about that...
 

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