Back to Oblivion

[Rakael]

So I was really feeling the need for some open world gaming and dug out my copy of Oblivion. I'm a few hours into it again and having a really good time. Known issues aside this is a really good game. I'm really slowing down this time and taking in the scenery, reading every book I come across, and talking to people.

Anyone else ever venture back into Oblivion and remember how much fun it was?

[Hawkzombie]

Honestly...I dunno what it is about Oblivion. I liked the game...a lot. I grabed a CRAP load of addons and played them to completion (A lot of the ones that added awesome quests/etc were great) and used the overhaul mods, etc.

But I never touched the main questline. Ever. to this day I've never gotten out of Kvatch. After I beat the last of the main addons quests, I uninstalled it :p

[Gorvi]

I've been meaning to get back into Oblivion for a while now, if only to finish the main game, which I never came close to doing.

Good to hear you're enjoying it. :)

[Narradisall]

I did the main quest Hawk, but I did EVERYTHING else before for some strange reason.

I just think the main quest was rather dull and boring. Whereas some of the other quests were MUCH more fun.

I loved the theif guild quests, right up to the fun finale stealing an Elder scroll. Maybe that was just the Theif gamer in me coming out again though...

[Zanzibar]

I gave up Oblivion because I literally could not watch another full-face cutscene with the ugliest humans ever devised. Yes, it's REALLY nice to have randomly-generated faces, but damned if 9 out of 10 of those combinations didn't look as though they were attacked by Botox-injecting bee swarms.

[Narradisall]

It was more funny when they tried to flirt with you...

"Want to come back to mine...?"

"Fuck no, you ugly troggladite bitch"

[Hawkzombie]

LMAO

As my wife would say 'Everyone's got the downs!!'

But I played Fallout 3 the EXACT same way, Narr...my wife would roll her eyes when she saw I invested 100 hours of play time, but hadn't beat it yet (I did the other day finally though lol)

[BigJonno]

Oblivion hasn't been off my PC for over three years. Every few weeks I load it up, tinker with mods and play for a couple of days. I still haven't completed the main quest.

[menage]

I loved it to death the 150 hours I spend with it. But I tried rebooting it a couple of times now and always get pretty bored fast. It just takes too long to get started I think. And Fallout 3 really upped the ante of what I want in a game like that so if I have an itch will always go for that.

Farcry 2 also has an amazing setting in which I just can stroll around for a bit, and it asks less of you to just pick up and play. It also gives less back off course, but as a setting they're equal. I'm doing that now actually.

I gave up Oblivion because I literally could not watch another full-face cutscene with the ugliest humans ever devised. Yes, it's REALLY nice to have randomly-generated faces, but damned if 9 out of 10 of those combinations didn't look as though they were attacked by Botox-injecting bee swarms.

I do imagine the usual peseant folk in medieval times being ugly as hell though, so I actually found it more realistic than having perfect faces for most chara's like we usually get.

[Jeffool]

There's actually mods that go far in making the game look even better than it currently does (especially as far as improvements in character models, as did mods for Morrowind, now that I think of it.) But yeah, I recently blogged about how I only got around to completing the main quest after I got bored of conquering the world.

I think such a game would be far better if it was just an expansive, interactive, self-progressing, persistent world, in which you were given free rein to play as you please. Player-stories are always better than developer ones by the simple virtue that we care more about what we create. And my character wasn't a hero out to save the world who got side-tracked by theft. He was a fledgling thief who became the world's greatest Grey Fox, and eventually saved the world because he got bored with everything else.

[DarkDay]

I think about going back all the time. I tried once and got a little scared as the first time I played it I logged over 3 hundered hours and really all I did was climb mountians, drink wine, explore, steal, steal more. I think I only closed 3 gates.
I even own all the addons.
I fear for my business if I do. Own if for my pc too.

[menage]

I do need to get back to Shivering Isles one day, that was probably my favorite part in Oblivion.

[Kelegacy]

Played the hell out of it, got 1000/1000, but then Shivering Isles came along and I haven't played much of it.

I loved the game like crazy, though.

[Rakael]

I agree on the ugly ass people, but I still love this game. I doubt I'll be logging anywhere near the time I did in previous plays, but it is a lot of fun to just loose yourself in when you have a few hours of free time.

[Dorkandproudofit]

Those who have not finished the main quest, should stick it out, if only for the ultra-badass cutscene at the end.

A 100-foot tall flaming dragon god fighting a 100-foot tall four-armed demon god of destruction with an axe in each hand? FUCKING AWESOME.

[WhyThree]

I was just playing this a couple of nights ago. I'm done with the main game and I just finished the first quest (the mousetrap one) in the Isles. Does anyone know if there's a house you can buy in the Shivering Isles or anywhere to store your stuff? Or am I going to have to go back out to the Imperial City to dump some armor?

[Generation ABXY]

Never got around to a lot of the DLC (like Shivering Isles and such), but I used to love this gamed and played it all the time. I'm a little afraid at how many hours I put in, actually.

Of course, all that changed when I got GTA IV...

[jpublic]

I finished it and a lot of the DLC (Shiv Isles was awesome) but when I tried to go back to it I couldn't get into it. I think I overloaded myself with too many damn mods. Especially the ones that completely changed the way the skills worked.

[crazyD]

I got annoyed with this game quick, as I often do in RPGs where I am prevented from playing the way I want. I was focusing almost all of my exp on thieving and talking, then I ran into even thieves guild missions that were nothing but big stupid fights where I stood no chance. If I'm focusing on non-combat abilities, and enemies level along with me, than I just get fucked and quick. Besides that, I found the game to be incredibly bland and ugly. Was not a fan at all.

[carnage11]

I got the 1250/1250 with SI included. Shivering Isles was awesome enough to play through again alone. I had to play through SI again to get the final achievement because you have to go down two different paths to get both achievements, Mania and Dementia. I did try to start it up again, but then realized how long it took me to get all my stats to 100 and couldn't do it. I put over 300 hours into that game. Don't think I can play through it again. There's really no need to. That was kind of a downside to being able to max your character out in all the stats, because by the end you were a god and there was no point in creating a new character.

Spoilers for those that haven't completed or played the game yet.

Being the god of the Shivering Isles, I was also Master Champion of the Arena, Master of the Fighter's Guild, Arch Mage of the Mage's Guild, and the Gray Fox of the Thieves Guild.

After all that what's the point of going back to play again? I did have a lot of fun making up spells though. My favorite was the Heart Attack spell.

Taken from the UESPWiki:

Heart Attack

* Drain Fatigue 100 pts for x+1 secs on Target
* Damage Fatigue 100 pts for x secs on Target
* Drain Health 100 pts for z+1 secs on Target
* Damage Health y pts for z secs on Target

Most of the numbers are variables. Good values are: x = 3, y = 23, and z = 9

This spell is just fun to use. Assuming the variables are filled with the numbers in the example above and a character who is a Master of Destruction, the 'on Touch' version of the spell will cost about 290, while the 'on Target' version will cost about 440.

It will take some testing to get the amounts right for you. It is possible to cast on a Bandit and run backwards. At first he will spin around like nothing happened and start running after you. Then all of a sudden his body will go limp and plummet forward smashing face-first into the ground, and then he may slide several feet due to the momentum. After a second, he will start to stir, struggle to his hands and knees, and while pushing off the ground in an attempt to get back to his feet, the Heart Attack will bring death, and he will fall forehead-first back to the ground again, his corpse positioned like ^ on the ground.

This spell varies in effectiveness and style depending on your level and what enemy you face. You can easily make a version to kill most everything you face, however you get a funny effect by making the Fatigue and Damage durations just right (as in this example) so that they would fall and then struggle to get up before collapsing in death. Of course to set that up takes a bit of tweaking and testing.



edit: oh I almost forgot, the most fun part of the game was the super cheap 100% chameleon suit. lmao. I could kill everything in the game with one touch of my finger.

[Panthera]

I got annoyed with this game quick, as I often do in RPGs where I am prevented from playing the way I want. I was focusing almost all of my exp on thieving and talking, then I ran into even thieves guild missions that were nothing but big stupid fights where I stood no chance. If I'm focusing on non-combat abilities, and enemies level along with me, than I just get fucked and quick. Besides that, I found the game to be incredibly bland and ugly. Was not a fan at all.

Oblivion somehow managed to combine the worst aspects of Morrowind and Daggerfall into one giant bland ball of suck that was worse than the sum of its parts.

[evilgoodwin]

I got the 1250/1250 with SI included. Shivering Isles was awesome enough to play through again alone. I had to play through SI again to get the final achievement because you have to go down two different paths to get both achievements, Mania and Dementia. I did try to start it up again, but then realized how long it took me to get all my stats to 100 and couldn't do it. I put over 300 hours into that game. Don't think I can play through it again. There's really no need to. That was kind of a downside to being able to max your character out in all the stats, because by the end you were a god and there was no point in creating a new character.

Spoilers for those that haven't completed or played the game yet.

Being the god of the Shivering Isles, I was also Master Champion of the Arena, Master of the Fighter's Guild, Arch Mage of the Mage's Guild, and the Gray Fox of the Thieves Guild.

After all that what's the point of going back to play again? I did have a lot of fun making up spells though. My favorite was the Heart Attack spell.

Taken from the UESPWiki:





edit: oh I almost forgot, the most fun part of the game was the super cheap 100% chameleon suit. lmao. I could kill everything in the game with one touch of my finger.

Oh my god, that's awesome!

Now I want to play it again!

And while everyone was reaaaaaaaaaaaally fugly, I couldn't get over how everyone sounded like the same 4 people. "Great job with Patrick Stewart! Sucks that we blew our entire audio budget and couldn't hire more voice actors!"

[Vandabo]

edit: oh I almost forgot, the most fun part of the game was the super cheap 100% chameleon suit. lmao. I could kill everything in the game with one touch of my finger.

That was also my favorite part. That and the taint magic.

I haven't played it in a while, so I don't know if they patched this out or not, but it was awesome. You basically make a spell that has a positive effect but also a very minor negative effect, like small fire damage. Then you make a spell that gives yourself massive weakness to fire damage. Then you cast the first spell on yourself, and the positive effect is multiplied a huge amount because you have a weakness to the fire damage part of the spell. You can do this over and over, to give yourself godlike abilities.

For example, I made a spell that would allow me to leap to the top of the towers in the Oblivion gates, so I could just enter the gate, leap accross the map to the tower, leap to the top, go in and steal the orb and be done.

You can also give yourself almost infinite health and other stats. The only problem is the maximum spell length is only 2 minutes, so you have to keep recasting all that on yourself.

It was fun screwing around with that stuff.

[carnage11]

That was also my favorite part. That and the taint magic.

I haven't played it in a while, so I don't know if they patched this out or not, but it was awesome. You basically make a spell that has a positive effect but also a very minor negative effect, like small fire damage. Then you make a spell that gives yourself massive weakness to fire damage. Then you cast the first spell on yourself, and the positive effect is multiplied a huge amount because you have a weakness to the fire damage part of the spell. You can do this over and over, to give yourself godlike abilities.

For example, I made a spell that would allow me to leap to the top of the towers in the Oblivion gates, so I could just enter the gate, leap accross the map to the tower, leap to the top, go in and steal the orb and be done.

You can also give yourself almost infinite health and other stats. The only problem is the maximum spell length is only 2 minutes, so you have to keep recasting all that on yourself.

It was fun screwing around with that stuff.

Holy shit I didn't know about that. I might have to try that out. Is that only in the PC version? Or can you do it on the 360? I always thought it sucked that you couldn't fly like in Morrowind, but then I figured it was due to the fact that you couldn't just over doors because the game would have to load. How does that work? Like if I'm outside the Imperial City and I jump the wall.

The oblivion gates were easy to me cause I would just put my invisible suit on and run straight to the orb. lol. I would also save right before picking it up and if it wasn't the one I wanted I would just load. haha...so cheap.:D

[Vandabo]

I can't remember if I did it in the 360 version as well, but definitely in the PC version.

It can definitely cause some bizarre issues, because you can jump over city walls and land inside. They are basically just a blank grey space with just the buildings that you can see from the outside. I could routinely crash the game by going up to that super high jump off point (can't remember what it's called) and jumping across about 2/3 the map. you would just fly from loading point to loading point, and eventually my PC would just give up and crash. It probably wouldn't be a problem on a modern computer, but it was too much for my old one.

I just searched an Oblivion forum and found that they did patch the tainted magic thing. Casting the weakness spell on yourself multiple times no longer exponentially multiplies the effects. Should still work on older versions though. If you're interested I can put up a more specific guide, because there are a few more steps involved than how I summarized it.

[jpublic]

Am I the only person who went looking for Oblivion gates? I loved those things, they were so damn fun.

I also remember my laughable 'Stalker' class. He had Heavy Armor, Armorer, Sword, Bow, Lockpick, Alteration, Restoration, and Stealth. I would be sneaking around in Heavy Armor except for my shoes. It was hilarious.

[Arphahat]

I got annoyed with this game quick, as I often do in RPGs where I am prevented from playing the way I want. I was focusing almost all of my exp on thieving and talking, then I ran into even thieves guild missions that were nothing but big stupid fights where I stood no chance. If I'm focusing on non-combat abilities, and enemies level along with me, than I just get fucked and quick. Besides that, I found the game to be incredibly bland and ugly. Was not a fan at all.

This really bugged me, too. Look, I'm a great negotiator / merchant / thief... and now there are minotaurs walking the roads right out of town? WTF? I think there are some mods that try to adjust that and I keep meaning to try them out. But, it really broke my ability to belive when the thieves on the road had armor so valuable that they would have lived like kings if they had sold it instead of making a gold or two off hapless passerbys.

[JayK47]

I started a new game not too long ago but got side tracked. Not too sure if I will ever get back to it. Wanted to try being a mage and also wanted to see what mod offerings were currently available.

[Narradisall]

For anyone that skipped Shivering Isles, its a sin, a GOD DAMN FUCKING SIN!

"Come back for more.... OR I'LL PLUCK OUT YOUR EYES!"

[Dostoyevsky]

For anyone that skipped Shivering Isles, its a sin, a GOD DAMN FUCKING SIN!

"Come back for more.... OR I'LL PLUCK OUT YOUR EYES!"

"I once dug a pit and filled it with clouds....or was it clowns.... well whichever it was it began to smell...Ahah! must have been clowns. Clouds don't smell, they taste of butter. And tears."

So awesome.

I went through a bit recently just to see how different the experience would be after a few hundred hours of Fallout 3, and made a custom class "Serial Killer". I ran around naked with a dagger, killed people in their sleep, stripped them naked and then laid in bed with them, laughing.

My wife came in the room and just stood there, staring at me. She didn't have to say anything.

[Wilkz07]

just got it on 360 a couple weeks ago (goty edition) but haven't had time to play it yet.

[Hotcod]

soooooooooo tempted to pick up the delux edition on steam thanks to this thread... any one know if there's any problems with mods with steam (i heared there was but it was fixed) and any idea where is the best place to find a good list of add ons and such? I used to be heavily involed in the mod scene from morrowind in to oblvion when it first came out but it's been a long time... i used to be able to download nearly 2gb of mods for morrowind hehe

[Hawkzombie]

"I once dug a pit and filled it with clouds....or was it clowns.... well whichever it was it began to smell...Ahah! must have been clowns. Clouds don't smell, they taste of butter. And tears."

So awesome.

I went through a bit recently just to see how different the experience would be after a few hundred hours of Fallout 3, and made a custom class "Serial Killer". I ran around naked with a dagger, killed people in their sleep, stripped them naked and then laid in bed with them, laughing.

My wife came in the room and just stood there, staring at me. She didn't have to say anything.

You, sir, are the greatest we have to offer.

EDIT: And that's what I've done wrong...I never went to SI in Oblivion...I bought the damn thing when it came out (only exp I got for it, didn't bother with the DLC)...

Ugh. I'm getting tempted again as well.

[jpublic]

I'm tempted to load this up again myself. How about we make a list of good mods to try? I *don't* recommend the OOO (someone's Oblivion Overhaul) as I dislike a lot of what they do, especially the skill changes.

How about you guys?

[Lithium Flower]

soooooooooo tempted to pick up the delux edition on steam thanks to this thread... any one know if there's any problems with mods with steam (i heared there was but it was fixed) and any idea where is the best place to find a good list of add ons and such? I used to be heavily involed in the mod scene from morrowind in to oblvion when it first came out but it's been a long time... i used to be able to download nearly 2gb of mods for morrowind hehe

No problems with the steam version. At best you might have to do a little bit of manual installing of mods. Just pick up the Oblivion Mod Manager and OBSE latest beta.

I was doing a replay of this before starting Dragon Age, and will return to it after I finish saving Ferelden.

Do we have a mod list? We need a CoG Oblivion mod list! :D

[Wolvie]

Oblivion? In my opinion it's the best RPG ever made. I never completed all of it but I got all but one achievement. I still have yet to complete any of the expansions, except for the Shivering isles. I keep a copy of the game around for the odd chance I might be in the mood for it. And for nostalgia.

[Narradisall]

Ahhh, how did I forget the Clowns line. That one was epic when I heard it.

Shivering Isle is the best bit of content for that game imo.

I did have to cheese the last boss though, leaping from balcony to pillar to keep out of his way.

[Hotcod]

http://sites.google.com/site/ballofflame/balloffire'soblivionmodlist

this seems to be as much an rather up to date and comprehensive list as you are going to find... it's huge and looks very very useful

[Hawkzombie]

http://sites.google.com/site/ballofflame/balloffire'soblivionmodlist

this seems to be as much an rather up to date and comprehensive list as you are going to find... it's huge and looks very very useful

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

Dammit. That pretty much makes it easy for me to decide to go back. time to close shut the Jaws of Oblivion :p

[Hotcod]

I'm tempted to bite the bullet but they've got a publisher week going on so i''m not sure if I should save my money but I'm tempted by that mod list... we'll see, if I dive in I'll let you guys what is working and whats not and so on.

edit, nah to many unplayed and unfinshed games along with far to much work to do. maybe in a few weeks :P

[jpublic]

My main problem with a page like that is my reaction:

"Jesus Christ, you recommend I install all that shit? That'll take me hours. Fuck it."

[Hawkzombie]

My main problem with a page like that is my reaction:

"Jesus Christ, you recommend I install all that shit? That'll take me hours. Fuck it."

Not really. Go through it and grab all the 'install early' stuff. Then, grab the others. Won't take hours, but it'll take a little time investment

See, to me, oblivion really shines with addons. And this took all the guesswork out of them. He's got a lot of the best, what ones you need to make them all work, and even a utility that automatically adjusts the load order.

I hate myself for saying it, since I wasn't gonna go back, but I'm gonna get all these and start playing again :p

[Dorkandproudofit]

This thread makes me wish I had gotten the PC version rather than the Xbox version.

[ClannerDelta]

My main problem with a page like that is my reaction:

"Jesus Christ, you recommend I install all that shit? That'll take me hours. Fuck it."

I recommend it. The "Must Install" list makes Oblivion an excellent game and he has already done all the leg work of getting the utilities in place to get the Big4 to work together in one place. I've been wanting to play Oblivion again for some time but I fell out of touch with the mod scene and didn't want to go through it again, this is working extremely well.

[jpublic]

Some of them looked interesting, but I don't dig OOO. I was sitting there beating the crap out of my opponents for hours and I got not improvement in any of my skills. I turn off the skill change, and BAM they rocket up.