Darth333 Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 I don't know what's up with blade, I'm always wading right in and dealing damage, but I can't get it up either. Would you mind looking into the widgets and wingnuts behind the Blade skill during your next modding session? If I knew just whether it's damage dealt, attack type, number of attacks, quality of attacks, etc. I could strategize accordingly:) This could explain what is happening: http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/ModPCSkill Just keep using your skill and it will "unlock". I had that happening with my block skill. I took a good shield and went to take a few good beatings and it finally came back to normal. Find a tough ennemy, use a blade that does little damage and don't forget to bring healing potions with you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 well, i finally got all my new hardware installed, and what a difference!! the game looks even better, especially with the HDR lighting enabled. and now, i even managed a slight fps boost even with the extra features running. i love upgrades. anyways, i was kind of wondering if anyone has tried to do what i'm doing and that's to ignore the main quest and do all the side quests. so far, i've managed to get the Amulet to that monk on Weyland Priory, but nothing else reguarding the main quest. another thing i was wondering is why its so **** hard to advance in the Fighter's Guild. its not that i can't advance, its just that the missions are so darned sparse. i'm not quite understanding that bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth333 Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 anyways, i was kind of wondering if anyone has tried to do what i'm doing and that's to ignore the main quest and do all the side quests. so far, i've managed to get the Amulet to that monk on Weyland Priory, but nothing else reguarding the main quest. That's the thing with TES games: you can do what you want when you want I initially started the main quest but I decided to take one of my older saves and keep the main quest for later. Apparently there are also a few quests that can only be done before you reach certain points in the main quest, such as a mission for the countess of Bruma. another thing i was wondering is why its so **** hard to advance in the Fighter's Guild. its not that i can't advance, its just that the missions are so darned sparse. i'm not quite understanding that bit. Dunno, I only did some missions in Anvil and Cheydinhal. I<ve decided to imagine that I was not in prison for nothing at the beginning of the game so I'm currently playing an evil stealth character and I've be suspended from the fighters guild (I guess I wasn't stealthy enough lol ). I'm so infamous that I can't no longer cure diseases and remove curses at the churches: all the gods hate me! When I click on an altar, they give me only insults Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 ^^^^ hehe, i guess i'm having more luck than you with the stealing stuff. so far, i've been caught once, but that was a really freak accident (i don't pickpocket, so that helps). another really freak accident that i had was with one of the roaming Imperial Hunters in the Northern regions. a came across one of them from a distance and started filling him with arrows since i thought he was one of those bandits you encounter every once in while. needless to say, i didn't know he was an Imperial guard until i went to go check his body. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoffe Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 This could explain what is happening: http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/ModPCSkill Just keep using your skill and it will "unlock". I had that happening with my block skill. I took a good shield and went to take a few good beatings and it finally came back to normal. Find a tough ennemy, use a blade that does little damage and don't forget to bring healing potions with you The problem for me isn't that the skill isn't increasing, just that it does so very slowly compared to my other combat skills. In battle I spend roughly 80% of the offensive time stabbing enemies with a blade and 20% casting Destruction spells (mostly Finger of the Mountain since I cant craft my own spells yet). Both Blade and Destruction are Major skills, but still my Blade skill is 60 and my Destruction skill is 85, currently. Neither has been boosted by Training yet. This strikes me as a bit strange, which is why I suspected that the number of times you hit an enemy with your blade is the major factor, not the damage you deal. Don't know if that's true though. Overall though it seems like some Magic skills advance fairly quickly. For example it usually just takes 10-20 casts of Conjuration spells for that skill to increase. anyways, i was kind of wondering if anyone has tried to do what i'm doing and that's to ignore the main quest and do all the side quests. so far, i've managed to get the Amulet to that monk on Weyland Priory, but nothing else reguarding the main quest. I do some of the main quest occasionally, padding it with a lot of side quests and exploration in between each step, when necessary. A bit of a story breaker since the situation is fairly urgent, but luckily none of the main quest steps have been time limited so far. One thing to keep in mind though is that things get progressively harder as you go up in level, since you'll get tougher enemies with more skills that levels up with you. As such "escort" missions where you need to keep alive some NPC (that usually charges into battle like a frenzied rhino at the first sight of an enemy with no concern for their own safety) may become quite hard if you wait too long to do them. In particular if you usually favor a sneaky combat style, since you can't do that when walking around with friendly NPCs in tow. It's easier to defend someone against a Stunted Scamp or Rat than against a Dremora Lord or Storm Atronach. If you wait too long to do certain things the story narrative of some quests make little sense as well. Such as... the quest in Cheydinhal where you need to enter the Oblivion gate that has opened just outside the city to close it and rescue the Duke's son, in order to secure their aid in the defense of Bruma. The journal entries acted like it was some big, new thing to enter a gate and seal it, even though my "Gates Closed" record was 30+ at the time. another thing i was wondering is why its so **** hard to advance in the Fighter's Guild. its not that i can't advance, its just that the missions are so darned sparse. i'm not quite understanding that bit. You'll have to go to the right places, since most Guild Halls don't offer entry point quests for the plot line. If I remember correctly the Fighter's Guild quest sequence starts out in Anvil, then continues in Chendinhal and then you get sent to the Guild Boss in Chorrol where most of the other quests (so far, I'm not done with that plot line yet) seems to be given out from. The Mage's guild seems to lot harder to advance in initially at least. I've only yesterday, at character level 17, advanced up from Associate (the first rank) to Apprentice and gained access to the Arcane University. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vaelastraz Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Ive gotten the game, and iam really impressed, however i can only play at minimum details without annoying lags. Has anyone also done that quest where you have to free one guy from his own dream world? You then have to enter that dream world with a special bracelet, and after completing that quest they tell me that i get that bracelet (they even warn me to be careful when to use it). However i dont get that item, instead i receive some weak useless spell scrolls. Anyone else experienced that bug? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ztalker Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 I have a 'problem' regarding hardware too. I'm trying to get the best possible config, but it keeps lagging like hell, unless i turn it all down to medium. Can any of you guys give me some advice? What should i disable/enable for best result in matter of framerate? btw... stingerhs, how can you enable HDR? THe option has turned grey at my configuration screen... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChAiNz.2da Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 how can you enable HDR? THe option has turned grey at my configuration screen...First, your card has to support it... but other than that, you can't have AA (anti-aliasing) and HDR.. you have to choose one of them. Also, you can't have HDR and Bloom.. again, one or the other. Though I'd choose HDR over Bloom.. OR, you can choose HDR, and force your hardware card to do the AA for ya' As for tweaking.. this site, provided by stingerhs, has some of the best tips I've seen to date. Plus it explains exactly "what" you're fixing : http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_1.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth333 Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 To add to what ChAiNz.2da said concerning hardware, don't neglect updating your video and sound card drivers. While I always keep my video card drivers updated, I tend to forget about the sound card...Surprisinly, updating my sound card drivers really helped. Not only I hear sounds that I have never heard before but it gave a considerable boost to my fps, especially when riding a horse and during battle. My fps now rarely drops below 35. I'm playing at high settings (with bloom and AA turned on) with an Athlon 3400+, 1 gig of ram and an x850xt PE card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceAlex Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 I like the game, but i think it's missing more voice actors. Every third character sounds the same. The PC responses are also quite limited. There are no good or evil options, and there's usually only one way to finish a quest. I guess this game is not going to kill KOTOR for me after all. It just doesn't have that WOW factor. Apart from my previous statment, some boring quests and too short main quest, it's really a good game. I like that it's so open...it lets you do anything you want, anytime you want. Some quests are really good (Dark Brotherhood, last few missions of the main quest to name a few)... and it looks very pretty (but requires a very good rig). However, i belive it won't keep me busy for as long as KOTOR did (even if it's much longer). I'm just not having that much fun playing it, as i did playing KOTOR the first time. Even before i finished KOTOR, i knew i would play it again at least one more time. I don't think the same thing will happen with Oblivion, especially because some quests are a pain in the [consored]. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 ^^^^ actually, i've found that a number of quests do have an 'evil' option or a 'good' option depending on your character. and often times whenever you are given a quest that sounds 'evil', you have the option to just not complete the quest, or in some cases, you can complete the quest without having to do the 'evil' deed. the best example i can come up with was back up in Bruma where you could murder the one NPC to aquire an item they were wearing (since you can't pickpocket something an NPC has equipped). but if you looked in a nearby chest, you'd find that they were wearing a fake item and the real item was in the chest. so, you really didn't have to kill the NPC unless you're just trying to be evil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceAlex Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 ^^^^ actually, i've found that a number of quests do have an 'evil' option or a 'good' option depending on your character. and often times whenever you are given a quest that sounds 'evil', you have the option to just not complete the quest, or in some cases, you can complete the quest without having to do the 'evil' deed. the best example i can come up with was back up in Bruma where you could murder the one NPC to aquire an item they were wearing (since you can't pickpocket something an NPC has equipped). but if you looked in a nearby chest, you'd find that they were wearing a fake item and the real item was in the chest. so, you really didn't have to kill the NPC unless you're just trying to be evil. I finished that quest, yes (i still don't know who was telling the truth - the woman or the man... i think it was the man, because the lady sounded very annoying lol). I wish there were more like that, especially in the main quest. Apart from that the Dark Brotherhood had some of the best dialoge in the game. Also a very good plot twist at the end. Anyway, i'm only about 55 hours into the game, so there's still much i have yet to discover. My next goal is to become the arch-mage (if i can, that is). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T7nowhere Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 the best example i can come up with was back up in Bruma where you could murder the one NPC to aquire an item they were wearing (since you can't pickpocket something an NPC has equipped). but if you looked in a nearby chest, you'd find that they were wearing a fake item and the real item was in the chest. so, you really didn't have to kill the NPC unless you're just trying to be evil. Actually, you don't even have to steal the item, the npc will give you the key if your honest about what the other npc wants done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoffe Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 I like the game, but i think it's missing more voice actors. Every third character sounds the same. The PC responses are also quite limited. There are no good or evil options, and there's usually only one way to finish a quest. It sounds like there are 8 voice actors that do pretty much all the voices (except the Emperor in the prologue). I suppose that's just a necessary side effect of how the Oblivion dialog system works, where a lot of dialog is shared between multiple NPCs (the Rumors and City topics for example). At least the PC responses are somewhat more verbose than one-worders on occasion. Unlike Morrowind, where you felt more like browsing a hypertext page than being in a conversation with someone. Don't know if I agree on there only being one way to end quests though. Numerous quests I've done so far has offered multiple paths of both doing them and ending them. Not all quests do this, but a fair share of them offers some freedom. As for good/evil options, there are some in a few quests, but usually the game does the distinction of Good/Evil quests instead of trying to squeeze both moralities into the same quest. As such, you make the choice by choosing if you want to do the quest or not. Even the main quest is optional, after all. * * * Seems like I stumbled upon another instance where the Journal text doesn't really reflect what just has transpired: In the Mage's Guild quest where you have the meet the Count Dracula of Skingrad, supposedly to fetch a book from him. When I was ambushed by the Necromancers while waiting for him to show up I killed them all, looted them and then waited some more. A few moments later the Count shows up, and the ensuing dialog and journal entries plays out like he had just saved me from the Necromancers. WTF? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 you know, my one new complaint with my new card is that the game is suddenly much less stable. the last crash almost crashed my entire system. hehe, it left one moniter in a wierd B&W mode and it flickered like heck. i do have a funny feeling that my card might've gotten just a bit too hot, but i don't know for sure. time to take the cover off the case.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REDJOHNNYMIKE Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 @D3, I was asking what action actually causes the skill to increase (stoffe mentioned # of hits) I couldn't figure out if it was hits, damage, quality (hit percentage) or what? I'm not sure what the link was for, I can't find a console in the 360 version:( And what do you mean health potions, 3 dremora can't get me below 75% If you mean for use during prolonged blocking, "minor heal wounds (8 health)" keeps up nicely;) @Stoffe, All npcs don't scale up, just hostiles???? That sucks:( That's one thing I hate about the way games are developed.... Once upon a time in Happyvillehalliston...... Me "So like am I supposed to help you do something?" Sonny the Prince "YES! THEY'RE AFTER ME! YOU'VE GOT TO ESCORT ME OUT OF HERE!:D" Noobweak the Guard "We must defend the prince with our lives! If he falls we'll be doomed to massive glitchage:eek:" Captain Wetbritches "You've got to protect the prince, just don't forget that if we die too you'll miss some of the best dialog in the game!" Noobweak "What's a game sir?" Cap'n Wetbritches "Shut your deadra hole imbecile! Do you want the Boogie Oogies to hear us!?" Noobweak "HERE THEY COME! Look, whatever your name is, I can obviously see that you are so burly that you would persuade the oogies into adapting an appearance such as that of wetbritches over there, but I just feel really lucky today, so I'm going to abandon the prince for now and run right over and destroy all the mean bad guys in one legendary strike!" Cap'n Wetbritches "Watch out, they're trying to flank us through that hallway, we both have to head them off before they get sonny, even though he already ran down the third hall shouting "BANZAIIIIIIIIIIIIII", uh oh, they have us surrounded we're clipping them and can't get to the prince!" Sonny "BANZAIIIIIIIIIIIIII, Piano lessons don't fail me now!!!" Noobweak "I'm like totally going to kill them all and save sonny!!!.....Crikey, me arm!!" Cap'n Wetbritches "The way I see it we only have two options, One I hit this switch and close the doors the oogies are attacking the prince through, Two I run down these stairs, jump on their pikes and scream like such a loud little girl that I cause a major collaps of this cavern crushing everyone but you and the prince......... BANZAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" Sonny "Aww he was so brave. My daring defense of myself has left me with 3 health and three less intensively trained piano mastering fingers. We really should get out of here now, let's take the elevator." Me "There was an elevator?" Sonny "Yep, had the key with me the whole time, just now remembered. Jump in before it leaves!" Noobweak "Hey, guys?????? Uhh, hello???? Crikey me arm!..."You have contracted Porkylactisticabibble Hemophilia" ?????? Hooray, I've never had the gaurd skillz for a good contract, my heroism has finally paid off:D" Me "I just love escort missons:)" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoffe Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 @Stoffe, All npcs don't scale up, just hostiles???? That sucks:( That's one thing I hate about the way games are developed.... Most NPCs seem to scale up both in levels and equipment. Resulting in such ridiculous encounters as small backwater villages (e.g. Border Watch) where every single simple peasant farmer is visibly carrying around Glass weaponry and being the same level as your Oblivion Gate crashing hero. Nevermind the fact that the weapon costs more than they would earn in a lifetime... The problem seems to be that the enemies, Daedra and monsters in particular, don't just go up in level but are substituted for tougher variants that usually can make short work of any leveling NPCs. Earlier in the game the riding Imperial Legion patrols would make short work of anything going near the roads with ease. But now that I'm level 18 they are lucky to survive a single encounter with a random monster along the road. Bears, Spriggan and Minotaur Lords usually make short work of them (though at least their horses has the sense to flee when overmatched). And guards are supposed to be 10 levels higher than the player... A level 15 Legionaire can handle Stunted Scamps and Clannfear Runts with ease, while a level 25 Legionaire seems to have serious problems against Dremora Markynaz and Storm Atronachs... Recently I've had to stock up with targeted Heal/Restore/Cure spells and use them on my allies after every fight when on quests where you have to escort someone somewhere, since they are often near death after every single encounter. And still I'm not playing on any hard difficulty level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pavlos Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 The Mage's guild seems to lot harder to advance in initially at least. I've only yesterday, at character level 17, advanced up from Associate (the first rank) to Apprentice and gained access to the Arcane University. Gaining entrance to the Arcane University is... annoying. Some of the quests are fun and others seem to be lacking. Such as the one where you have to simply hide a book to get another person to appear and the other one where you just have to follow the map to find a book... I don't know if it is just the way I play the game (I'm used to more story based RPGs, although Morrowind was very good) which results in me finding quests to often be too short, or random. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ztalker Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 @ChaiNz Thanks man I was wondering why my Ati Radeon X700 couldn't do it Most NPCs seem to scale up both in levels and equipment. Resulting in such ridiculous encounters as small backwater villages (e.g. Border Watch) where every single simple peasant farmer is visibly carrying around Glass weaponry and being the same level as your Oblivion Gate crashing hero. That's the reason why i stopped playing. I became lv 20, and was ambushed by simple thiefs wearing frikkin Ebony armor =s Some people claim this is the first real 'next gen' game, but i disagree. This gameplay mechanism above simply doesnt work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pavlos Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 Some people claim this is the first real 'next gen' game, but i disagree. This gameplay mechanism above simply doesnt work. I agree with you. This game is Next Generation in its rendering techniques but so far a gameplay is concerned, in many respects, it is lagging behind. The law system in the game just doesn't seem to work properly... I don't much like the physics either - I happen to agree with Gamespy on this - why on earth don't glass objects shatter when they hit the floor? Why?! It is a great game though . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ztalker Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 True, and i fully enjoyed it when i played it. I'm no thinking about making a custom class, join some 'guilds' and get the famed Shadowmere. Hmm...i'm thinking about a Blade-wielding thief...maybe with Dai-Katana's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 well, i already made the decision to use a mod that fixes the issues with the characters using the really nice equipment whenever they're supposed to be cannon fodder. the tougher enemies, however, aren't affected as much. it does help to make several things make sense in the game, but i'm still thinking that level caps should be introduced on some characters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pavlos Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 well, i already made the decision to use a mod that fixes the issues with the characters using the really nice equipment whenever they're supposed to be cannon fodder. the tougher enemies, however, aren't affected as much. it does help to make several things make sense in the game, but i'm still thinking that level caps should be introduced on some characters. Where is this mod, stingerhs? I must have... I must also look into the modding tools for Oblivion... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 i think ChAiNz posted a link to that particular mod earlier in the thread. either way, i got it from TES Source under the gameplay enhancements category. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoffe Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 Gaining entrance to the Arcane University is... annoying. Some of the quests are fun and others seem to be lacking. Such as the one where you have to simply hide a book to get another person to appear and the other one where you just have to follow the map to find a book... I don't know if it is just the way I play the game (I'm used to more story based RPGs, although Morrowind was very good) which results in me finding quests to often be too short, or random. I suppose it mostly took me quite a while to get in since you have to visit all guild halls in all cities to get your recommendation, and I'm a compulsive non-user of the map marker fast travel. Exploring every city I get to before moving on to the next one, on foot, didn't exactly speed up the process either. I've gotten admitted now though, at level 18, and I've gotten started on the Mages Guild "main quest". (At least all the running around has given some physical rewards. My level 18 character has gotten to 100 Acrobatics, 100 Speed and currently 82 Athletics. I can almost catch up with the Black Horse Courier riders now. A few more ranks in Athletics and they probably can't outrun me any longer. ) The quests have been fairly varied so far, but that's fine by me. The only thing that annoys me somewhat is that many are a bit too linear even though the game world itself allows flexibility in how they are solved. In the example you mentioned for example, I... cast Detect Life within the guild hall and found the invisible Khajiit I was supposed to find immediately. But he just told me to go away when I talked to him and I was given no dialog options with either of the other two to talk about it. So I still had to go along with the book prank and was strong-armed by lack of dialog choice to act surprised when the High Elf "revealed" the Invisible Khajiit to me. That's the reason why i stopped playing. I became lv 20, and was ambushed by simple thiefs wearing frikkin Ebony armor I'm using the mod that tones down the use of Elite weapons and armor on common Bandits and highwaymen, so I'm only occasionally getting something valuable from them, and not full sets of rare armor in one go. That Mod however does not seem to affect ordinary, non-hostile NPCs that populate cities, villages and Inns. Such as the village full of (level 17) Khajiit peasants wielding a small kingdom's worth of Glass weapons. I don't mind if "boss" type characters wear nice equipment, it just annoys me slightly when commoners walk around in equipment that would cost the entire fortune of your average Noble family to purchase. I also don't understand the obsession that every single encounter must be scaled to present a challenge. If you get commoners walking around in Daedric armor when I reach level 20+ I suppose I'll have to try to Mod that myself as well. (Changing the AI barks to have a percentage chance of remarking on any of your high attributes or skills, rather than just exclusively the first one matching the high criteria 100% of the time, made a lot of difference in speak variety ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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