Ok So What You Think Of Oblivion

awhir · 25-03-2006 10:25AM #1

leave your COMMENT here.

Rev Hellfire · 25-03-2006 10:30AM

It might be an idea for you to give us yours as well.

awhir · 25-03-2006 02:58PM

havent made mine up yet.

WhiteWashMan · 27-03-2006 11:23AM

tell you in 6 months time so.

rip2roar · 27-03-2006 06:30PM

Brilliant is all I can say

Vegeta · 28-03-2006 11:13AM

Very enjoyable gameplay and loads of missions. Love the world and am totally overwhelmed by it.

There are some negatives, on the 360 pop up and frame rate issues quite a lot due to often loading. Now personally i don't mind these at all but they can upset the flow of play and tarnish the role playing aspect if you are really into your character. They are worse on a horse as you are moving faster and the loads come even more often.

One thing that kinda annoys me is that missions difficulty (and therefore rewards) are based on your current level. For example my friend and i did the same mission only difference being that my friend was a higher level than me. In the end a bad guy had to be killed and my friend got way better armor and weapon drop than i did. This may not make a blind bit of difference to the average player but I don't like it.

They are my only 2 groans about the game but they don't even come close to the positives for me anyway. Love it

Zillah · 28-03-2006 12:49PM

I very much agree that my only complaint (and it is a fairly serious one) is that the whole world is adjusted to your level.

If everyone levels up, the no one levels up...

garrethg · 28-03-2006 04:17PM

Zillah wrote:

If everyone levels up, the no one levels up...

Ah yes, the mob levelling... I was always dubious about that, particularly after my experiences with the utterly pointless RPG Sacred. Somehow I held out hope that Bethesda could pull it off, that it would balance the game, that it wouldn’t destroy the reward of levelling up. My hope was misplaced. In particular it makes an utter farce out of the Arena guild where the player can reach champion at any level – no matter how low.

Incredibly Bethesda actually managed to make Oblivion even easier than Morrowind thorough the very mechanism that was supposed to resolve Morrowind’s lack of challenge :rolleyes:

zepplin · 28-03-2006 05:20PM

this will be my first rpg since ff8! cannot wait...23 more mins

uberpixie · 28-03-2006 05:21PM

garrethg wrote:

Ah yes, the mob levelling... I was always dubious about that, particularly after my experiences with the utterly pointless RPG Sacred. Somehow I held out hope that Bethesda could pull it off, that it would balance the game, that it wouldn’t destroy the reward of levelling up. My hope was misplaced. In particular it makes an utter farce out of the Arena guild where the player can reach champion at any level – no matter how low.

Incredibly Bethesda actually managed to make Oblivion even easier than Morrowind thorough the very mechanism that was supposed to resolve Morrowind’s lack of challenge :rolleyes:

In all honesty I really liked gothic 2's system where the creatures are as tough at the start of the game as they are at the end.

You really see the benefit of leveling up, after a while, when you start to kill creatures that used to kick your ass a lot quicker.

Especially as you start off as an utter pleb: you really get a sense of achievement whne you can hold your own against the tougher creatures.

You won't get that feeling if the creatures get as tough as you the whole way through the game.

Do like the skills system in oblivion:the way your skills only go up the amount you use them.

B00MSTICK · 28-03-2006 10:23PM

Im glad enemies are get harder with levels, makes it alot more of a challenge then morrowind. Im delighted they made stealing a bit harder aswell. you could have a full set of glass armour with a glass longsword aswell as a serious sword (Sword of White Woe) at the start of the game.

garrethg · 29-03-2006 09:28AM

uberpixie wrote:

In all honesty I really liked gothic 2's system where the creatures are as tough at the start of the game as they are at the end.

You really see the benefit of leveling up, after a while, when you start to kill creatures that used to kick your ass a lot quicker.

Exactly, the Gothic games are excellent examples where levelling up is particularly satisfying because improving the avatar’s abilities has a very tangible impact on gameplay. There nothing quite like the sense of tension and adventure creeping through a forest, sighting a Shadowbeast and backing very, very slowly and carefully away because you know you’re no match for it – yet. On the flip side of the coin there’s the satisfaction of slicing through once threatening, but now feeble, packs of wolves and scavengers.

Another nice touch in Gothic is when you - as a low-level pleb - draw your weapon around NPCs they react with anger and demand you resheath it or face the consequences, whereas if you do the same as high-level engine of destruction the NPCs react with fear and plead with you to calm down.

uberpixie wrote:

Do like the skills system in oblivion:the way your skills only go up the amount you use them.

Yes and no. It’s good in concept, but less so in execution. Some skills are far too easy to raise and some far too difficult, which in turn makes it too easy to create an unbalanced character. I’m sure many people have found themselves forced to restart Oblivion (plus Morrowind and Daggerfall) due to the skill choices they made at the outset. My character is currently level 18 and I’m considering restarting because my skill choices made my character too easy to level up. I've barely scratched the surface of the world and already mere bandits are 'gifting' me elven, ebony and glass weapons/armour.

Oblivion is a superb game in terms of quest, dungeon and world design, but the game mechanics behind it are (still) fundamentally broken.

garrethg · 29-03-2006 09:51AM

B00MSTICK wrote:

[In Morrowind] you could have a full set of glass armour with a glass longsword aswell as a serious sword (Sword of White Woe) at the start of the game.

But only if you knew where they were (from a previous game or a walkthrough), could actually get there in one piece and had some stealth skills. In Oblivion I've obtained these things for even less effort, I can have a thousand glass longswords, I can throw away full suits of Daedric armour just to watch them tumble down a hill. In terms of items Oblivion plays more a Rougelike game than a true CRPG.

Vegeta · 29-03-2006 10:09AM

garrethg wrote:

But only if you knew where they were (from a previous game or a walkthrough), could actually get there in one piece and had some stealth skills. In Oblivion I've obtained these things for even less effort, I can have a thousand glass longswords, I can throw away full suits of Daedric armour just to watch them tumble down a hill. In terms of items Oblivion plays more a Rougelike game than a true CRPG.

I hate the fact that everyone levels up as I do, they should not have done it like this. Its the only part of the game i don't like.

If there are enemies kickin my ass so be it, I will go away kill other weaker enemies and then come back for revenge.

If wraiths keep leveling up at the same rate as me i'll go nuts, they are tough for me as a level 5 thief but i was hoping at level 10 i'd have the advantage. Instead i'll have to buy a silence spell and maybe paralysis, thing is though i don't like magic that much nor have i picked a character with a lot of magic.

garrethg · 29-03-2006 02:46PM

Vegeta wrote:

If wraiths keep leveling up at the same rate as me i'll go nuts, they are tough for me as a level 5 thief but i was hoping at level 10 i'd have the advantage.

By the time your character levels up enough to take on the maximum level of a particular creature type they will no longer spawn as frequently (if at all) but be replaced by something nastier. However it does all depend how the level designer set up the spawn point in question. It’s quite possible to set up spawn points in the Construction Set which always generate the same type and level of creature - thus removing the bond between creature type/toughness and player level - but as far as I know the majority of spawn points in Oblivion aren’t set up that way.

Dcully · 29-03-2006 03:39PM

Disappointed tbh,im trying to get into it purely on the basis most here seem to be raving about it.
I have a killer machine running this at max detail and res with smooth framerate,for reasons i cant put my finger on im just not enjoying it.
Ive put in many hours at this stage and i just havent clicked with it so far.

uberpixie · 29-03-2006 05:07PM

Dcully wrote:

Disappointed tbh,im trying to get into it purely on the basis most here seem to be raving about it.
I have a killer machine running this at max detail and res with smooth framerate,for reasons i cant put my finger on im just not enjoying it.
Ive put in many hours at this stage and i just havent clicked with it so far.

Happened with me for morrow wind. Played half an hour: just could not get into it, uninstalled it.

Then went off and played gothic 2 and wondered why people raved about morrow wind so much :-)

The most important thing to do with oblivion is to make a character you are happy with: doesn't have to be the best. Just one you are happy with and suits your style of play.

Once you get out a re start or two out of your system and have a character you are happy with: you start to enjoy the game.

The game it's self is nothing revolutionary: theres nothing there that has not been done by gothic 2 etc before.

Once you accept it for what it is you enjoy it.

Zillah · 29-03-2006 08:55PM

uberpixie wrote:

Happened with me for morrow wind. Played half an hour: just could not get into it, uninstalled it.

That happened me for a while. I tried and then gave up on morrowind twice before I got into it properly, didnt look back.

I also agree on having to have a character you like.

Burning Eclipse · 06-04-2006 11:53AM

I love it... if anyone can view my gamertag it’ll be pretty apparent that I’ve put many hours into my Dark Elf Adventurer (was gonna call the custom class a Botanist because of my love for alchemy). What a gamertag can't tell you is the gripes I have with the game...
Here we go:

Vegeta - Frame rate issue, I couldn't agree with you more, I'm on 360 and as much as I love my console, and I do, I really think this game was thrown out to us... The loading times have caused me to despise it at times and initially I got a 360 for 1 reason and Oblivion is it. Pop up is also a horrible distraction and although these problems seemed fairly inconsequential in the beginning of the game they just got worse as it progressed.

A lot of people are complaining about the level up system… I personally like it. I died about 5 times in Morrowind once I got past level 20….

I killed Vivec and Almalexia without breaking a sweat and used my Daedric Dai-Katana w/ Absorb Health 55 points on strike to pretty much make any semblance of difficulty a joke. I had full glass armour at level 3…

While walking into a random inn in Oblivion and seeing people in full Daedric Armour is equally as silly and horribly unrealistic (I have also thrown Daedric Cuirasses off cliffs garrethg lol), on the whole I think Bethesda made a good decision in changing the level/loot system. My own 2 cents… If you’re the Champion of Cyrodiil then some punk in a tavern should in no way be comparable to you. So from a challenge point of view I do like it, don’t mind not getting great loot as quest rewards will do me anyway, but yes… to quote another thread here Daedric Armour might as well say “made in Cyrodill” on it.

I know this idea will ruin the experience for some but if people have such a problem with everybody being stronger then lower the difficulty slider 2 notches or whatever every time you level up… you get stronger and foes probably stay about the same. Sure the Orc in the local inn will have full Daedric…. But you’ll kill him easier…

Oh... I quite like how the perks system works, particularly for mages. Enchanting and Spell Creation now must be earned which is nice.

Finally, I just hit level 30 and although Bethesda tried to make a game that kept challenging me I found myself closing Oblivion gates in 7/8 minutes last night and only groups of 3 or more enemies were a challenge in terms of combat. It’s not perfect but no open ended RPG ever is… The question is; is this the most enjoyable game I’ve played in this genre…. Yes, yes it is. Not flawless but certainly a “9”

Oh, one final thing... I like the radiant AI and they talked it up alot, especially people having a route throughout 24 hours but ground-breaking.... *cough* Shenmue *cough*

Vegeta · 06-04-2006 11:59AM

Burning Eclipse wrote:

level 3…[/spoiler]
Oh, one final thing... I like the radiant AI and they talked it up alot, especially people having a route throughout 24 hours but ground-breaking.... *cough* Shenmue *cough*

Nice

chamlis · 06-04-2006 02:00PM

Burning Eclipse wrote:

Oh, one final thing... I like the radiant AI and they talked it up alot, especially people having a route throughout 24 hours but ground-breaking.... *cough* Shenmue *cough*

hehehe

ShiverinEskimo · 14-04-2006 02:58PM

I think the levelling up system works well. As a level 1 It took a few swipes of the swords or my fists to take out a rat on the first level - now I creep up, soul trap them and use one punch to take them down. Bandits also now are piss easy to take care of - but then when I'm questing and I'm coming up with the likes of Wraiths, Skeletons and Zombies I do find they are tougher as I get tougher and to be honest I prefer this. Each quest feels more worth it as I have to slowly battle my way through hundreds of tough beasties or attempt to sneak by them all. Anyone who's done the final Thieve's Guild Mission knows what I'm talking about.

On top of that the game rewards you for levelling up - most of the shrine quests have a level requirement before you can access them so that when you do level up and you complete the quest the item you get goes a long way to having an advantage over your equally leveling baddies. Eg:

Azura's star anyone? Uber-Lockpick?

Sand · 15-04-2006 01:57PM

Yeah, I do like the levelling up. It means that the challenge at least attempts to move with you. My only issue would be the Inns full of guys wearing Daedric armour etc etc. There are mods out there though that solve this - its still possible such armour to show up on tavern drunkards, but extremely unlikely - so I will start using this once the problem becomes noticeable.

Ive got to say, fair play to the mod makers. Theyve really come through on short notice with a lot of good fixes (the UI enhancement - cant imagine how anyone on PC survived without this, the map colours enhancement, fixing the Unicorn to be somewhat useful - how this got past QA is unreal, solving the storage problems) and its only a few weeks after release. Its going to be great to see what they come up with over the next few months. Its a tremendous justification of TES policy of extreme modability, something Bethesda deserve thanks for. Even if the game wasnt perfect on release theyve freely distributed the tools to easily make it better.

art · 15-04-2006 08:40PM

Sand wrote:

Ive got to say, fair play to the mod makers. Theyve really come through on short notice with a lot of good fixes (the UI enhancement - cant imagine how anyone on PC survived without this, the map colours enhancement, fixing the Unicorn to be somewhat useful - how this got past QA is unreal, solving the storage problems) and its only a few weeks after release.

Agree it great having this game so mod-able and the great work that already been done etc. Wondering what you meant about the UI enhancement - I've no problems with the UI (using PC) but always looking for improvements nevertheless... ? I didn't notice any UI mod on tessource.net

(It might be a idea to have a thread with people's mod recommendations for Oblivion?)

Sand · 17-04-2006 06:21PM

Wondering what you meant about the UI enhancement - I've no problems with the UI (using PC) but always looking for improvements nevertheless... ? I didn't notice any UI mod on tessource.net

This mod here. The stock UI looks like it was designed for XBox360 - the menus are large and clunky, better for seeing on your TV from your couch I guess - so in this mod they improved the map, equipment listing, skills etc etc so more is displayed on screen at any one time and added percentage notes to various effects. Basically the sort of UI the game should have shipped with for PCs. One further improvement Id suggest is moving the keys to their own seperate tab or at least pushing them to the bottom of the misc tab and pushing useful stuff like repair hammers/soul stones etc to the top. Stupid design decision to put them keys where they are. Hopefully the next release will fix this.

Theres also an (optional) ability to turn off compass point but I prefer this on. I still have nightmares over trying to track down a quest location with ****ty illiterate ramblings of a sozzled tavern drunk for directions in Morrowind. Im not nostalgic for it.

ianmc38 · 18-04-2006 10:35AM

I think it's an absolute gem of a game. havn't had as much fun since FF7.

art · 18-04-2006 01:40PM

Sand wrote:

This mod here. .

Thanks for that link - I never noticed that one, was looking for something with "UI" or "Interface" etc in the title ... I'll check this out later when I'm home from work, sounds good

Ok So What You Think Of Oblivion

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