Mods that add new gamemechanics to Oblivion?

[YourConscience]

First my mini-rant:
We all know how bland Oblivion is. Period.

Now my flame material:
Yet I think the Editor they provided is excellent. I think it's really sad to see such technical excellence go along with such plain game designer stupidity. I think even the Joe off the street would've done a better job at making a believable gameworld, yet even the best programmers at my university wouldn't be up to the task of creating such a well-done game engine and editor set combination even if given enough time/money.

And here my question:
Does anyone know of any *complete* or at least sufficiently working mods that add entirely different types of game mechanics to oblivion? Like managing your own farm including hiring and defending workers. Or like implementing an actual open or invisible war between some factions? Or (for something crazy) a simple chess game within the engine? Or just something that changes the perspective a bit?

And here an additional question:
Any such mods for other comparable games? I.e. a true castle managment mod for NWN2 (instead of the crippled one) or sth. like a really dynamic campaign for Operation Flashpoint?

 

[DMKW]

There are a few sim type mods that i know of including farm, brewery, general store, mining, etc. Some are finished some aren't. I'm not sure whats what though you will have to search the official OB mod forums.

There are also crafting mods, survival mods, texture enhancers, graphic enhancers, etc. It is definitely a fun engine to mod with but just like the first TES:CS its still very limited.

 

[RK47]

Think you're asking too much in some areas...Managing farms in Oblivion? wtf? Just download SimFarm in nearby Abandonware sites.

There's a great difference between asking for mods and asking for something that is totally unrelated to the game's scope itself.

 

[YourConscience]

There's a great difference between asking for mods and asking for something that is totally unrelated to the game's scope itself.

Why is it that people like you, who obviously don't have anything informative to say still post away like this? Well, at least that gives us, Natural Language Processing scientists more material to analyze...

Actually I think that a farm managment sim "mini"game fits very well into the concept of a role-playing game. For one you can approach the managment in different ways, from slavery to your own attempt at a little enclave based on ideals. Or you could find such a slavery farm and try to free all the slaves. Simply put, it would offer many possibilities to exercise something like procedurally generated or emergent RPG content.

Or piss off some nearby uber-vampire and he's going to slowly convert your peasants until one night you wake up surrounded by a hundred vampires in your lovely little farm.

 

[Jabbapop]

Or piss off some nearby uber-vampire and he's going to slowly convert your peasants until one night you wake up surrounded by a hundred vampires in your lovely little farm.

Ooh! That would be scary!

 

[Jabbapop]

Oh also is there a mod where I can go to the barber shop and get a haircut in Oblivion or go on a vacation or a hot date like in the sims i always end up cheating in that game anyway so it's not very difficult but it's always fun dressing up and pretending!

 

[dongle]

There was a playable chess game mod for Morrowind. . . .

 

[galsiah]

. . . good job they didn't remove all looping from the scripting language for Oblivion.

 

[Blacklung]

On the combat/exploration side of things, I think some of the parts of Oscuro's Overhaul does a pretty fine job. On the enemy side of things it adds level caps to nearly every creature type (no more wolves taking down a lvl 30), gave many enemies altered sizes depending on their whoopass capabilities, and even added a whole bunch of new ones (which look fairly well done and fit into the lore). Also, they made many of the dungeons static with specific rewards and enemies of appropriate difficulties (the further off the road you go or the deeper the dungeon, the harder they are). They even made certain doors and chests (quite a damn many) impervious to low level lockpickers (you can even bash now if you have enough strength). Lots of new items and adjusted prices to stuff you can steal to appease rogues and such.

They add a bunch of other things, but some are optional and I'm playing with only a few alongside the core design and I definitely have been enjoying the new challenge and reward system they put into this shit pile of a game. I also added on a mod that gives you more options for things to say in quests. Both of these mods have actually managed to make Oblivion fun...Too bad I bought the game early, because I should have waited until now when the price went down and community made the experience worthwhile.

 

[Hazelnut]

. . . good job they didn't remove all looping from the scripting language for Oblivion.

Yeah that would be really stupid. (please don't tell me that's what they did)

 

[VenomByte]

. . . good job they didn't remove all looping from the scripting language for Oblivion.

Yeah that would be really stupid. (please don't tell me that's what they did)

No, it's not. They did *far more* than just that. For starters, there's no GetSoundPlaying function anymore, which renders half of the more advanced MW mods impossible to recreate in any way. Then there's the removal of the ability to create shared global variables, so no more complimentary mods or 'hooks', such as the Vampire Embrace scripts. Global scripts don't really exist now, you have to fudge everything as 'quest scripts' and set the calling period down (to make up for not having any loops, naturally). There's lots more, but those are some that stuck in my head the most.

I presume all these changes are to dumb down the CS enough that Bethsoft's target audience don't hurt themselves. Safest way to make sure you don't get any infinite loops is to remove loops, right? Best way to make sure mods don't conflict is to make it impossible for them to share/conflict any shape or form whatsoever, right? there are plenty of dev comments that the OB CS was easier to use than the MW one. Naturally, this meant dumbing down and removal of any depth or interesting possibilities.

Oblivion modders continue to do things the devs never even imagined were possible with the CS, only because the devs have the collective imagination of a walnut.

Some of it can be worked around, but all in all my conclusions after playing with the Oblivion CS in quite a bit of depth for a couple weeks, was that there is far less possible than there was with the Morrowind CS, and very little indeed that you can do now that you couldn't do in one way or another with the MW TESCS. The only real exception is the 'script effect' spells. They were hyped nicely, but turned out to be the only bit of the new CS actually worth hyping. Unsurprisingly.

I haven't looked at it for what is now the best part of a year, so perhaps some of the issues have been resolved. Probably not.

 

[Balor]

Well, there is a scripting extentin 'OBSE' worked on. Btw, gotta check if they made any progress - they promiced restoration of loops, and lotsa juicy functions.

 

[HardCode]

Why bother with all of this? Why support a company that fucks over even their newly acquired fanbase? If someone made the World's Best RPG Evar(TM) out of a complete Oblivion overhaul with the CS, I would never buy Oblivion to play it. I won't support scumbag companies like Bethesda.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

No, it's not. They did *far more* than just that. For starters, there's no GetSoundPlaying function anymore, which renders half of the more advanced MW mods impossible to recreate in any way. Then there's the removal of the ability to create shared global variables, so no more complimentary mods or 'hooks', such as the Vampire Embrace scripts. Global scripts don't really exist now, you have to fudge everything as 'quest scripts' and set the calling period down (to make up for not having any loops, naturally). There's lots more, but those are some that stuck in my head the most.

What the FUCK? I'm glad I never continued making Cakes of Wrath after seeing how shitty the game was. No... GetSoundPlaying fuction... good grief. I did, however, like the bit where any dialogue line would only appear for the length of time the soundfile played for; if there was no soundfile for the line, it would go past in roughly a third of a second. Todd says NO to reading!

 

[elander_]

I can't understand why they had to make their own programming language when they could just bind python or java to it.

Anyway no, there are little few mods that add new gameplay and the ones there are just fix the little gameplay there is, and that's already hard.

I once considered creating rogue-like 3d dungeons ie dungeons that change topology in a pre-scripted that appears randomized but it just re-links doors and combines paths acording to a list of pre-defined and "safe" layouts. Just making this list available globaly was already so clumsy i gave up on it.

 

[obediah]

I can't understand why they had to make their own programming language when they could just bind python or java to it.

Because it's easier to write a new language than cripple an existing one well.

 

[YourConscience]

Ok, so there's already lots of rant in this topic, but almost no useful links, unfortunately. However, I was able to find a mod called NPCs with jobs and some unfinished mod that adds a manageable castle. But I guess I'll have to wait another year or so. If something I mentioned above will ever be done in Oblivion at all, that is.

But back to my extra question: Does anyone know of any such mods for any other (preferable rpg) game?

 

[cutterjohn]

It may also be the native scripting of the gamebryo engine, and the "new" limitations may just be a new "feature" of the new gamebryo engine forerly known as net immerse engine...

 

[JrK]

I can't say I've dabbled in the major gameplaymechanic mods, but I have had some amounts of fun with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul. That mod changes a lut of stuff drastically, from the birthsigns and combat/magic cost balancing to completely overhauling the levelled list. If you like to get a reward based on what challenge you faced, this mod is for you. It totally turned the game around in the way that I'm actually happy to finally see a piece of mithril armour lying around.

It's still not good as an RPG, but that's not why I play it.

 

[denizsi]

I kindly ask you to take your fucking mod discussion to where it belongs ? Now if this were a discussion that just has sprouted in another thread, it would be fine but here? At least take it to general discussion.

 

[IV Flavia]

One mod that shows some good RPG spirit introduces an advantage/disadvantage system via an NPC interviewing your character, asking about his/her background, career, personality etc. You can actually flesh out your character in-game instead of pretending that they're supposed to be something with no consequence to the character. Of course, this still does jack shit to improve the quests and all, but whatever.

 

[aweigh]

For fuck's sake use the fucking Mod forum in ESF. That's what it's there and it will also garner you a ton more results. I could fill out an entire list of mods that will enhance Oblivion, but I won't, because this isn't the ESF.

 

[YourConscience]

For fuck's sake use the fucking Mod forum in ESF. That's what it's there and it will also garner you a ton more results. I could fill out an entire list of mods that will enhance Oblivion, but I won't, because this isn't the ESF.

Aweigh, you see, I didn't post in the ESF forums because I hoped that some people here would at least understand my question which was not simply asking for mods, but for a very special kind of mods. Some people understood it and tried to be helpful. You didn't understand it and are trying to be a troll. And I am feeding you. Here, have another tasty piece!

I kindly ask you to take your fucking mod discussion

Either you don't know what kindly is or you don't know how kindly asking works. Either way, here, have another piece of food, my cute little troll!

And to both of you trolls: I also asked about other RPG games.

I can't say I've dabbled in the major gameplaymechanic mods, but I have had some amounts of fun with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul.

Yes, I know about this and other common mods. But I was asking about mods that specifically add other types of gameplay, see my first post.

 

[whitemithrandir]

c mods, but I have had some amounts of fun with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul.

Yes, I know about this and other common mods. But I was asking about mods that specifically add other types of gameplay, see my first post.[/quote]

No. There are no mods that add new and significant gameplay mechanics, like mounted combat or dual wielding.

The construction set is way too limited for that.

However, since I'm not so savvy on the latest modding developments for Oblivion, you might find better feedback on the FUCKING ELDER SCROLLS MOD FORUMS.

Tyvm.

 

[VenomByte]

But back to my extra question: Does anyone know of any such mods for any other (preferable rpg) game?

Yeah, there are a shedload for Morrowind. Check the 'Gamplay mods' section of any major MW mods site.