LP: It's Oblivion Baby! Oblivion!

[oldmanpaco]

This is the extent of my conjuring ability. If you blow on him he goes down. Not overly useful but the summons have to get better.

Mud Crab - Horrible creatures.

I forgot about this quest. Nothing like a good MMO collection quest in your single player RPG.

According to a FCOM help thread the Sidways Cave is pretty good for a lvl 1 character. At least the first level is. So off we go.

Deadly Rat Combat:

Imps

Bigger Imp

Gotta Love Cultists:

Decent armor for cannon fodder. Better than mine.

This is what he was guarding:

This was in the chest - I have no idea what it is.

Bat death by fireball:

Someone not as awesome as me:

Imp death by lightning:

Bat death by Skeleton:

Onto lvl 2 of the cave:

Killed a few more bats and imps then ran into these guys.

It worked best to nuke them a few times from a distance, hide behind a corner then beat on them till they died. My skeleton died pretty instantly against them and was of no use. Here is my punk strategy in action:

Can't remember what these are for:

This is what ended my Sidways adventure:

Here is the Imp unloading on me:

Here I am about to die:

After 5 attempts to kill this bastard I called it a day and decided pose stoically for a photo opportunity:

 

[Seboss]

Elder Scroll fans made the past 3 years the worst of my life because I was stupid and shared mods with them.

Sounds like TESF all right. It's a wonder such a self-destructive community could last so long.

 

[DraQ]

Second, the magic system in Oblivion had been castrated in a manner so loathsome, repugnant and vile, that the quoted sentence alone should warrant you a 'dumbfuck!' tag, my good sir.

Third, the hybrid of the worst traits of an RPGish and action combat systems can't surpass even the least graceful implementation of an RPG mechanics crudely grafted on top of an FPS engine. The latter is still a traditional RPGish combat, with all the inherent advantages and disadvantages, while the former is an eldritch abomination that should be purged with fire.

As far as combat and magic is concerned you seem not to know what you are talking about. Tell me Draq when was the last time you had played Morrowind and Oblivion?

Let's see...

Magic:

Teleportation spells removed, levitation removed, sound removed, sanctuary removed, enchant skill removed, jump removed, slowfall removed, telekinesis rendered useless (despite the physical engine's potential to turn it into something awesome), detect enchantment and detect key spells removed, lock spell removed, swift-swim effect removed, spell effects no longer applied sequentially (which may look good at first, but greatly reduces number of potentially useful and interesting custom spells), number of simultaneous summons reduced to one, skill-, luck- and willpower-based chance to fail at spellcasting removed, chance to fail at alchemy removed, poison effect removed, stupid five-tier system introduced, enchanting freedom reduced, counterintuitive and stupid alchemy system added (advanced alchemist may be unable to use tried recipes from his lower levels due to undesirable side effects), spell projectiles no longer generated based on all effects.

The good things?
More useful "detect life effect", ability to brew poisons, separate "cast" button, spell cost reduction according to skill, willpower based magicka regeneration.

Sorry, doesn't cut it.

Combat:

Damage scaling replacing to-hit rolls leads to all sorts of shittiness:

-pinpoint accuracy with bow at low skill levels combined with negligible damage leads to people running around at nearly full health with heads resembling pincushions

-slamming claymore into the face of an unarmoured enemy several times doesn't take them down at low skill level.

-removing random element of to-hit rolls in absence of good combat AI capable of random or adaptive behaviour leads to combat being extremely repetitive and boring.

Armour class system is shit:

-it's extremely simplistic compared to Morrowind's, being simple percentage reduction capped at 85%, while in MW more complex formula is used allowing for broader range of AC and causing welcome side-effects, like high damage weapons penetrating armour much more effectively.

-it uses AC averaged over all locations for calculations, so boots, for example, protect character's head*, where MW used random function to determine hit location, then checked for the armour class for this location.

*)

Blocking is shit:

-damage mysteriously seeps through shields - if you stab my shield with a dagger, you'll hurt me

-blocking huge warhammer with tiny dagger is perfectly possible and confers no penalties other than blocking with weapon in general does

-blocking with weapons is done by accepting blows on the edge of your weapon, which is lunacy

Attacking is shit and perks are bland:

-No separate preferred attack types for different weapons - in MW you'd do best to stab with a short sword, but chop with an axe, in OB you always swing a dagger in the exact same manner as you would a mace

-no cool knock-down and stagger mechanics based on multiple factors, like oponent's agility, damage dealt and weapon weight (enchanting basic hammer with drain agility on strike is funfunfun in MW), simplistic perk-based system is used instead.


-removing random element from knock-down/stagger mechanics, in absence of good combat AI capable of random or adaptive behaviour, leads to combat being extremely repetitive and boring.

-special attacks given by perks are generic - they have arbitrary effects and are the same for all weapons.

-the most powerful special attack for axe or mace is stab, conversely, you can only stab with a dagger when your skill with blades is 100

Misc stupidities:

-axes are blunt

-no spears, crossbows, staves (ones not being rocket launchers, that is) or thrown weapons

-claymores and daggers belong to the same weapon class

-agility plays virtually no part in melee

-mail is light

-material progression is downright cheesy (glass is heavier and more durable than steel and is used to make hammers and bows, r00fles!)

-level scaling and loot scaling helps homogenize combat even further


Your point was?
Yes, the swooshing sound made by your weapon when swung around was nifty for the first minute or two.

BS

Better fit if you ask me.

I tremble before your vitriolic wit.

 

[racofer]

oldmanpaco, could you please make a video of this with voice overs? It's so boring and not cool to read written text.

 

[Wyrmlord]

My god, those mods truly transform Oblivion.

The graphics are actually looking decent, and the game just seems a whole lot more interesting. There is just simply a better setup to everything.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Misc stupidities:

-axes are blunt

manual says that it's because they're wielded more or less the same way and have more or less the same weight, therefore training with them is similar enough to put them in the same category despite axes not being actually blunt weapons. Dunno about that.

-material progression is downright cheesy (glass is heavier and more durable than steel and is used to make hammers and bows, r00fles!)

IIRC, it's not like our glass, it's just the name. Their Ebony is a metal instead of wood like ours, too. As some funtrivia, Ultima had a glass sword that killed most enemies in 1hit, that shatters after 1 use.

 

[DraQ]

-material progression is downright cheesy (glass is heavier and more durable than steel and is used to make hammers and bows, r00fles!)

IIRC, it's not like our glass, it's just the name.

Just like their chainmail is not like our chainmail, it's just the name, amirite?
After all you fix it by hammering, and it's cotton-light.

Lesson #1:
No amount of explaining away will make truly stupid crap any less dumb.

Lesson #2:
Attempts at such explanations only make the one making them seem dumb by extension, so don't do it.

Especially that:

Glass
These light and elegant weapons of Elven manufacture feature extravagant use of rare metals and cutting edges made from rare crystalline materials. Duellists and assassins appreciate the delicate balance and sinister sharpness of glass weapons.

Sorry, they *are* light and neither bows, nor blunt weapons use cutting edges to deal damage.

Also, the comparison of weights between steel and glass weapon counterparts in MW hints at the density of MW glass being similar to density to our silicates (and glass), MW glass weapons are also pretty fragile compared to metal ones (low durability stat).

The material progression in Oblivion, on the other hand, is simply linear increase of damage, durability and weight, with glass being much heavier than steel, steel heavier than iron, and elven weapons curiously heavier than their dwarven counterparts.
It could very well be replaced by simple
+1 < +2 < +3 <...< infinity plus one < MULTIHEADED DICK*
order and no one would have noticed, nor cared.

Their Ebony is a metal instead of wood like ours, too.

Ebony is also a colour (derived from that wood, admittedly), and TES ebony is blackish (ebony, heh), semi-metallic, semi-glassy mineral, that is, depending on the theory, either fossilized blood of a god, or mundane matter transformed by the contact with ripped out heart of a god, accounting for it's unusual properties.

*) THAT CAN HIT BOTH ASS AND LEG OH GOD ITS HEAVAN, obviously.

 

[The Wizard]

it's pretty much the blood of lorkhan mixed with vulcanic glass as far as i remember and only found on vvardenfell. glass is, by the way, also something from red mountain, almost as light as leather.

:uselesstrivia:

 

[DraQ]

it's pretty much the blood of lorkhan mixed with vulcanic glass as far as i remember and only found on vvardenfell. glass is, by the way, also something from red mountain, almost as light as leather.

:uselesstrivia:

I had an interesting discussion with resident geology/science in general geek nicknamed Wierd on the subject of glass and ebony back when I was posting on TESF.

Lore discussions are about the only thing I miss from TESF.

 

[octavius]

Elder Scroll fans made the past 3 years the worst of my life because I was stupid and shared mods with them.

Sounds like TESF all right. It's a wonder such a self-destructive community could last so long.

Most of the community is nice, bordering on sickeningly nice.
Giskard OTOH is a paranoid, raving lunatic who perceives anything less than grovelling and fawning about his mods as "mod bashing", and he and his disciples (mostly insecure little girls) will "report" any message that is not 100% positive to Giskard's mods.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Their Ebony is a metal instead of wood like ours, too.

Ebony is also a colour (derived from that wood, admittedly), and TES ebony is blackish (ebony, heh), semi-metallic, semi-glassy mineral, that is, depending on the theory, either fossilized blood of a god, or mundane matter transformed by the contact with ripped out heart of a god, accounting for it's unusual properties.

I knew that, and now I feel like punishing you for telling me something I already know.

Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony
Side by side on my piano keyboard, oh lord, why dont we?
We all know that people are the same where ever we go
There is good and bad in evryone,
We learn to live, we learn to give
Each other what we need to survive together alive.

Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony
Side by side on my piano keyboard, oh lord why dont we?

Ebony, ivory living in perfect harmony
Ebony, ivory, ooh

We all know that people are the same where ever we go
There is good and bad in evryone,
We learn to live, we learn to give
Each other what we need to survive together alive.

Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony
Side by side on my piano keyboard, oh lord why dont we?

Ebony, ivory living in perfect harmony (repeat and fade)

 

[octavius]

Well before I run off to kill things I thought I would check out the market to see if I could upgrade my equipment at all. In the grand Bioware tradition this guy ran up and started to talk to me.

Apparently I'm the one everyone is looking for.

That one is actually from a mod called Cybiades - Daggerfall Memories.
Personally I edited the mod so that the guy would only hunt me down after I had reached 35 fame.

 

[MetalCraze]

Ah Oblivion. It has been 3 years and 19 gigs of mods and you're still shit.

 

[Seboss]

Most of the community is nice, bordering on sickeningly nice.

As long as you swoon other Bethesda's games and their developers, yes, but they sure get rabid at the slightest hint of negativity. Hardly a way to move forward.

Giskard OTOH is a paranoid, raving lunatic who perceives anything less than grovelling and fawning about his mods as "mod bashing"

Dunno about that, but from what I've read here and there, it seems you need a lot of nerves to work with this community.

 

[TheWesDude]

Misc stupidities:

-axes are blunt

and let me guess, you think an epee or rapier should be classified as swords right?

just you try to use an epee or rapier like a longsword or hell even a shortsword and see how well you do.


try to use an axe like a sword, and its the same deal.

 

[DraQ]

and let me guess, you think an epee or rapier should be classified as swords right?

Not present in MW. :D

 

[Balor]

Question is, the only really dumb thing Bethesda did when it comes to 'blunt' skills - is that it didn't call it 'Hafted weapons' instead.

It is traditional way of calling weapons with long handles that include hammers, maces AND axes.

And no, axe and sword are very different - perhaps less so then axe and epee, but still.

I was a bit into historical fencing and read a lot about this stuff, I know whta I'm talking about.

Well, perhaps SOME swords, like falchion, is very axe-like, but sabers don't 'chop' - they cut, and thrusting swords rely on mauevers you cannot really do with an axe .

 

[KurtH]

Well, to be fair, hafted is a pretty big word.

 

[DraQ]

What saddens me the most is your apparent lack of memory of codexian craze regarding axes being blunt and soviet propaganda posters.

Shame on all of you.

 

[Balor]

And this must be remembered in ages!

http://axesareblunt.ytmnd.com/

 

[Balor]

Well, to be fair, hafted is a pretty big word.

Well, to put it bluntly, Bethesda's target audience is not exactly sharp indeed.

 

[KurtH]

That, my dear man, was my point. Now, I must politely axe you to quit your yhammering.

 

[Luzur]

and then there is the missing fly spell, crossbows and spears...

 

[DefJam101]

Well before I run off to kill things I thought I would check out the market to see if I could upgrade my equipment at all. In the grand Bioware tradition this guy ran up and started to talk to me.

Apparently I'm the one everyone is looking for.

That one is actually from a mod called Cybiades - Daggerfall Memories.
Personally I edited the mod so that the guy would only hunt me down after I had reached 35 fame.

Cybiades is a pretty cool mod. Does the 'r00fles!' thing much better than the Shiverwinter Rooflepeaks did. Wait until you're higher level, though. It's pretty much impossible to beat until you have decent gear.

The 'Tiny Mudcrabs' made me lol more than they should have. I saw them and immediately said D'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

terrible creatures

 

[Ahzaruuk]

Most of the community is nice, bordering on sickeningly nice.

As long as you swoon other Bethesda's games and their developers, yes, but they sure get rabid at the slightest hint of negativity. Hardly a way to move forward.

Giskard OTOH is a paranoid, raving lunatic who perceives anything less than grovelling and fawning about his mods as "mod bashing"

Dunno about that, but from what I've read here and there, it seems you need a lot of nerves to work with this community.

You kidding? TES General that doesn't have a thread that says how oblivion screwed up in some form or another a day is an oddity. That, and the Forums have calmed down since the release days considerably.

As for sucking developer epeen...I think Princess Stomper outdoes them all. Her obsession with Todd and Pete make the at-release worshippers look like casual fans.

That, and Giskard was a dick. No one mourned his departure and his mods were so horridly unclean. He would never let people even go near them though, because cleaning his mods was like slapping him in the face. He nearly brought a whole modding team to a crashing halt because of his antics.