If you're one of those people who never played Oblivion

[nomask7]

this message might be for you.

Here is how to make the game enjoyable, at least for a while:

http://www.obliviontweaks.com/mods/Ques ... emoval.zip

This mod removes the extremly annoying quest pop ups. You know, the one's telling you exactly what you have to do, like an ingame walkthrough. Thanks to these pop ups, even somebody with an IQ below room temperature can finish this game, but for people who would like to think by themselves, and don't want to have everything spoiled, these pop ups are a nightmare.
Apart from the pop ups, nothing changed. If you have problems with a quest (or haven't played for a while) you can still get the information from the quest journal and use the red arrow. But now you can choose by yourself, whether you need help or not.

Do you not like that level-scaling shite? Should not rats be like gods if you are? Huh?

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/V ... ail&id=268

If you're one of those old school fucks who like to get xp for everything worthwhile, get this (get it here):

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/V ... ods.Detail

Added performance when fighting multiple four-legged creatures (I had trouble with that, until I tweaked multithreading and RAM stuff, dunno which helped, prob the former, but I'm sure this mod won't hurt either):

http://www.obliviontweaks.com/mods/quietfeet.zip

If your performance goes close to zero in battles, you should try this mod. All it does is to remove the sounds played when a four legged creature (eg. horse, wolves) is walking. This seems to be serious work for the computer, especially with onboard sound cards. Since walking sounds are hardly noticeable during battles, I highly recommend this mod if you have this problem.

Multithreading tweaks (if you have a multi/dual core processor):

Multithreading Tweaks:

Tweak the Oblivion.ini (the one in My Games, etc.....)

bUseThreadedBlood=1

bUseThreadedMorpher=1

bUseThreadedTempEffects=1

bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1

bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1

bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1

iNumHavokThreads=5

iThreads=9

iOpenMPLevel=10

http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_9.html

Memory tweaks.

If someone cares, I'm not using Francesco's more enemies (more spawns; I'm using the added variety, however). I'm not using the extended adventurers mod either. I'm playing with 100% difficulty. I can't recommend doing that, but if you have the patience to get through the rats in the tutorial (with a fighter), you're probably a little bit insane and have the patience to get through anything later on. A very minor spoiler ahead. The worst that can happen is probably that you manage to (somehow) escape the Crusader's tomb alive with the magical helmet, realize you can't fast travel yet because there are enemies nearby (maybe something is chasing you), set out to travel to the nearest town (in mild panic), and get killed on the way by ... you don't really know who or what, but you forgot to save in the hurry.

 

[Worm King]

Is this another Oblivion mod thread? How many of these do we loving need? There are dozens games you can be play instead of a shit game modified in to a borderline mediocre one.

 

[nomask7]

Yeah, but those threads were by retards.

Also, what are those dozens of games I could play? How do you know I haven't already played them?

 

[JarlFrank]

Oblivion can be fun with the POOP modpack. http://www.poopmods.com/
And a crapload of quest mods added to that. Just browse around and you'll find some surprisingly interesting mods out there. Some of them even add *gasp* C&C *gasp*.

 

[DraQ]

Yeah, but those threads were by retards.

How is this one different?

 

[nomask7]

I just want to know those dozens of games I could play. If you can't help me, leave me alone.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

If someone cares

That sounds rather improbable. And you can't make Oblivion enjoyable. Have you played Arx Fatalis? Can you make Oblivion like that? I don't think so.

 

[King Crispy]

Oblivion is like a bad marriage for me. I keep thinking I can make it work by doing things differently in it, by adding things to it, but in the end it's always draining and unfulfilling.

I need a drink.

 

[Tintin]

How do I get the Jewishness out of it?

 

[nomask7]

If someone cares

That sounds rather improbable. And you can't make Oblivion enjoyable. Have you played Arx Fatalis? Can you make Oblivion like that? I don't think so.

Yep, I've played it.

 

[ArcturusXIV]

If someone cares

That sounds rather improbable. And you can't make Oblivion enjoyable. Have you played Arx Fatalis? Can you make Oblivion like that? I don't think so.

Arx Fatalis is decent, but I'm still waiting for my Underworld sequel.

I guess I'm the only guy on this thread that enjoyed Oblivion, but then again, I modded the shit out of it. I love having an open world to explore...would be nice if some company would create an Arx Fatalis style RPG with less linearity and more exploration.

 

[Tintin]

I guess I'm the only guy on this thread that enjoyed Oblivion

I enjoyed Oblivion (not as much as Morrowind, though). With a few mods, it is basically enjoyable which makes it a good game to me. I

 

[ArcturusXIV]

I guess I'm the only guy on this thread that enjoyed Oblivion

I enjoyed Oblivion (not as much as Morrowind, though). With a few mods, it is basically enjoyable which makes it a good game to me. I

Exactly. Mods are key. I played a stealth character as well, which made the whole thing more enjoyable, until the end when my character was in his mid-30's and incredibly overpowered with 100% chameleon. Stealth was rather well-done in Oblivion, I thought. Not as good as the Thief series, but a good hold-over, and with a couple clever takes on rogue tricks.

 

[MetalCraze]

Oblivion is beyond redemption. No mods can help it. Because even after 5 GBs of mods it remains shallow and boring. Sure mods can make it fun for a hour or two - yet there the good ends.

 

[Raapys]

Yep, Oblivion really can't be fixed. I too thought a few hundred mods could maybe turn it into a decent game( since that's what it took to transform Morrowind from a decent game into a great game ), but even as I had installed them all and started playing I realized it just wasn't possible; the only few minutes of fun I got out of it was some flying carpet spell I got from a mod.

The only mod that could make Oblivion decent would have to be a total conversion thing which replaced basically everything.

 

[nomask7]

Did you deal with the rat business (rats in the cellar)? I thought that was a funny quest.

 

[Captain Obvious]

Exactly. Mods are key. I played a stealth character as well, which made the whole thing more enjoyable,

I seem to remember that either the Assassin's Guild or the Thieve's Guild questline was rather good. No alternate solutions or anything like that, but rather neatly designed as opposed to the teletubby style of the rest of the game.

 

[ArcturusXIV]

The Dark Brotherhood quest line was pretty exciting as well. There was one mission that took place at a dinner party, where you had to get each of the guests alone and kill him/her. That was a pretty original idea for a quest.

I don't think Oblivion is shallow or boring. The dialogue can be poor at times, but hell, after WoW, any quest rather than collecting ten rat poops is fun. I'm still trying to wash the taint from my mouth.

I think the trick with Oblivion is to view it as more of an adventure game than an RPG. It's all about exploring, and seeing what is in every nook and cranny. There's plenty of hidden stuff in the game. One of my favorite moments was exploring the wizard's tower, amazingly deep area, full of hidden places. I don't remember the exact name of the quest, but it was really some of the best exploration I've seen in a game.

 

[Infernaeus]

Oblivion is beyond redemption. No mods can help it. Because even after 5 GBs of mods it remains shallow and boring. Sure mods can make it fun for a hour or two - yet there the good ends.

This is what I came here to say. Its amazing how they went from making Morrowind, a game that needed no modding whatsoever to be great, and then made this shit.

 

[nomask7]

I thought creature levels in Francesco's mod would be more static, but it seems like his idea was to make the game more immersive and random/unpredictable - not unrealistically level scaled as in the vanilla, nor strictly static and old school, where you'd know certain areas would be no-go zones at first in every playthrough, always the same places. The most important and thorough scaling changes seem to be item and quest related, as well as not letting you find level three Vampire Patriarchs or what ever - you could find them even early on, but they would be higher level - they'd still scale, just not from lvl 1 to max as in the retarded vanilla. OOO mod should give a better old school feel, but also more predictable than Francisco's.

Here's something I found about that:

One thing to keep in mind when thinking about overhauls -- especially if you're mostly worried about what happens at higher levels -- is that Oblivion has some very deep scaling issues that are almost impossible to completely solve. All of the overhauls deal with it to some extent, but none of them completely resolves all of these issues. You also may want investigate some player leveling mods like nGCD, Progress, etc., since that's a big part of the overall equation.

Fran (Francisco) does cap the scaling on some enemies, but it's perhaps not as aggressive as OOO in this respect.

For example, a Vampire Patriarch in Fran will be min Lvl-9 but has no max cap, so he will scale with you to whatever level you achieve (causing the same problem you describe). The same Vampire Patriarch in OOO will be min Lvl-22 and max Lvl-32, so he can only scale with you to Lvl-32, after which you will become more and more powerful relative to him.

Fran caps Gloom Wraiths and Goblin Warlords around Lvl-30, but he doesn't cap all NPC enemies like this. With NPC enemies, Fran varies the pattern a bit, making some of them capped and others not capped, so you won't always know how powerful an enemy could be. One Marauder Battlemage could be uncapped and scale with you forever, while another one could be capped around Lvl-20. This keeps you guessing.

OOO/MMM/FCOM are a bit more structured than this, adding new high-level enemy types and usually giving distinct names to different "tiers" of enemies so you'll have more of an idea what you're up against.

Another thing to keep in mind is that vanilla Oblivion was really only designed to be played to around Lvl-20. By that point you can meet or find everything the game has to offer. Fran sticks fairly close to this (bumps it to Lvl-25 or so). OOO is designed to stretch things out much further, slowing the rate of progress and spreading out the content "tiers" through Lvl-35.

So, while some of the mechanics are really very similar, the overall effect is very different among these overhauls. Not that one is better than the other, just different.

http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index ... 0948&st=60

Also, rats don't become gods in vanilla Oblivion, low level creatures are simply completely replaced with high level ones, same with items, and everything is exactly the same level as the player character.

 

[Forest Dweller]

I think the trick with Oblivion is to view it as more of an adventure game than an RPG. It's all about exploring, and seeing what is in every nook and cranny. There's plenty of hidden stuff in the game.

I'll second this. Obviously there is no c&c, but I never really expected there to be any. I'll be honest - I enjoyed the game. My first playthrough was about 100 hours, and my second playthrough (with mods unstalled, including Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul which drastically improved the game) was around 200 hours. Looking back, though, I did quite a bit of larping in order to make the game more enjoyable, some stuff that I probably wouldn't be willing to do now. I doubt I'd enjoy it as much as I did then, armed as I am with greater knowledge and Codex cynicism.

For the record, my favorite quest was the final thieves' guild quest.

 

[Qwinn]

Also, rats don't become gods in vanilla Oblivion, low level creatures are simply completely replaced with high level ones, same with items, and everything is exactly the same level as the player character.

Until you hit around level 21 or so. After that, everything in the game stays at level 21 while you can go way way way way past that. I am -amazed- that that made it past any sort of Q&A.

I agree with what several others have voiced. I played Morrowind and really enjoyed it. It had character, and style. And that's without a single mod. Oblivion had absolutely nothing going for it. It's really pretty amazing how two games can have almost the exact same engine, mostly the same crew working on it as far as I know, and yet be miles apart in terms of quality.

Maybe Bethesda is the Piers Anthony of the gaming world. Terrific initial works that then get progressively worse with each sequel until the final entries are brain-explodingly bad?

Qwinn

 

[Raapys]

That's one of the numerous problems with Oblivion, though. Since everything in the game was meant to be scaled, they made no high- or low-level areas; modders can't replace the scaling system completely as that would just bring up the question as to where there should be high level enemies and where should there be low level enemies. You'd have to pretty much redesign the entire game world and the quests.

 

[ArcturusXIV]

You have to at least give Bethesda credit for trying really hard. Better to aspire to great things and fall short, than to aspire to mediocrity and succeed. I'd rather have a developer trying to make an RPG than a developer creating Doom #5,123,423.

 

[MetalCraze]

Yes Bethesda was trying really hard to make the game as much shit as possible. Did you miss all those interviews?
Also stop calling their shit RPGs - they are just bad shooters with stats.

Better to aspire to great things and fall short, than to aspire to mediocrity and succeed.

The former is not Bethesda's case. They do shit not because they are trying to make something better but because they want to do shit.
When even talentless modders do better job than Bethesda - I believe that says many things.