[Karmillo]

Wonder if theres a way to tone it back up? through expansion packs or mods?

[NcroManiac]

There most definetly will be.
And are there any children in Oblivion? Nothing does kill my immersion in a "realistic" world than the lack of such a normal thing as that.
(Fallout UK for shame!)

[Fop]

It's actually odd how common the lack of children in RPGs is and how rarely I notice it.

My X800XL doesn't support HDR for Oblivion

[bysmitty]

I've been playing for two days but I can't help but be pretty annoyed at two points.

-The scalable enemies. I know they thought this to be a feature but I feel it takes all the point out of leveling. I'm am always to going to be just strong enough, never getting to really lay the smack down. I dunno', it just puts the combat on rails and takes away from the sandbox feel I loved so much with Morrowind.

-Merchants won't buy stolen goods. Well there goes all the fun out of being a thief, which was my favorite thing to do in Morrowind. I created my character to be the ultimate thief and started to pillage the countryside as I enjoy doing so much only to find that I can't unload my spoils anywhere?!?

Sorry for the vent. Grrr.. I hate having high expectations of this game but I cannot help it.

...bysmitty

[insane_cobra]

Originally Posted by NcroManiac

And are there any children in Oblivion?

No children, too much controversy (killing children etc.).

Originally Posted by bysmitty

The scalable enemies.

That's one one the features returning from Daggerfall, I liked it there. Only human enemies were scalable, though, beasties had fixed stats.

Merchants won't buy stolen goods.

Yeah, that sucks. They probably made it that way so you couldn't exploit the system by stealing from merchants and then selling them their own goods. It would make stealth classes way too easy to play.

[NcroManiac]

Stupid controversy. Children are humans too
And they could easily put in a system that punnishes you for killing them (makes the game overtly hostile towards you, put's a curse uppon you, children are unkillable because of a protection spell put upon them, etc).

Anyway, it's not that much of a deal, it's just sad that modern developers do not have the balls to ad a small detail such as this because of few whining socker moms. (What next, no women because it's imoral to kill them too?)

[RLacey]

*mutters something about having to wait until 3rd April due to stock problems and leaves the thread*

[insane_cobra]

Originally Posted by NcroManiac

Anyway, it's not that much of a deal, it's just sad that modern developers do not have the balls to ad a small detail such as this because of few whining socker moms.

Gothic has children, I believe.

[bysmitty]

Yeah, that sucks. They probably made it that way so you couldn't exploit the system by stealing from merchants and then selling them their own goods. It would make stealth classes way too easy to play.

Morrowind handled it nicely in that Merchants would just raise an alarm if you try to sell them their own wares. Made sense since they would surly recognize their own stuff. Now though, no merchants will buy any stolen goods. How does a merchant know a sword stolen from someone in a different city from one looted off a fallen foe. It just doesn't make sense. Apparently, I read you can find unscrupulous merchants in certain places that will buy stolen goods but that will still make it too much trouble to make a living as a thief. I guess I ought to just create a new character as a fighter class to help me overpower the scalable enemies.

Side Note: Doesn't the gothic series have children? *edit: beat me to it I_C*

...bysmitty

[NcroManiac]

Yeah, a big plus for Gothic then but I'm not in the mood to re-play it again

[Once A Villain]

I really like this game a lot, but it's basically an MMORPG without the MMO part... I mean, the style of the game is absolutely identical to an Everquest game (I do realize there were Elder Scrolls games before there were EQ games). Similar race choices, similar customization possibilities, same management of the Quest Journal, same open world style with dungeons and towns liberally placed about, same focus on player freedom, plenty of Guilds to join, emphasis on loot, buying houses, buying horses, etc. I love this style of game much more than Japanese RPGs, but I must say...it's even more fun when it's an MMO.

For me there's a huge difference between creating a bad ass hero in a single player game where no one else comes in contact with my hero, and creating a bad ass hero in a game where thousands of other players can drool over my character. Also, the whole buying, selling, and trading thing is practically an entire game by itself in MMOs. Some of my most memorable moments were "business deals" between myself and other real players who may have gotten a very rare item in a dungeon that I wanted. There's also competition between players when it comes to the rare drops or rare monsters, and best of all there's TEAMWORK between players too. Fighting alone is fun, and you can do that in an MMO, but being able to join with others and go questing is just so much fun.

Basically, I think Oblivion is a splendid game, but it's not quite as much fun as an MMO for me. Why should I care how amazing my character is when I'm the only one that can see him? I like bragging rights.

[Karmillo]

Post pics of him then

I just got this today

but theres already one bit that pissed me off kinda....

Spoiler:

When you get that cool katana off of the female guard at the start only to have the guard take it off you and "Thank you for returning it" just before you set off on your adventure....by the way does anyone know if that has any affect on anythign later on in the game? or is it just for a little extra xp? cause im thinking of reloading just before he takes it of me and drop it on a corner somewhere...

[jjacob]

Originally Posted by Moron Lite

Go to the map and click on the place you'd like to travel to.

Spoiler:

Stay on your horse, though.

Ah yes... Thanks, that'll save me some time I hate reading manuals, luckily most of the game is pretty self-explanatory.

Originally Posted by SakSquash

AI seems to work fine for me?

It's only a minor gripe, it's just that I expected so much more (especially after the examples given in the funny Oblivion AI thread). Instead, NPCs aren't that "clever" at all - for example, on one of the many "stake-out" subquests the person you're following will often get stuck on an object/fence, resulting in you waiting for days (Oblivion days, ofcourse) till he finds a way around And there is a way of 'pushing' him around the fence, but at one point the "AI" decides to back up into the object, so there's no sense in doing that Luckily this sort of thing doesn't happen every other minute, but it can be quite annoying when things like that do, and it totally kills off the immersion you'd just been working up for hours (yes, it is addicting, damn ).

Originally Posted by NcroManiac

What jjacob meant is that the AI is not as smart as they promised.
They actulay had to tone it down for it was behaiving TOO well (killing people for food instead of buying it, attacking player in groups for his stuff, etc).

Exactly, and it's too bad really, because the AI is what makes the gameworld so alive, yet when you stumble on 'buggy behaviour', you're smacked back into the real world

Originally Posted by bysmitty

-Merchants won't buy stolen goods. Well there goes all the fun out of being a thief, which was my favorite thing to do in Morrowind. I created my character to be the ultimate thief and started to pillage the countryside as I enjoy doing so much only to find that I can't unload my spoils anywhere?!?

Spoiler:

Have you found/joined the Thieves' Guild yet? You can sell all stolen goods to their fences, in fact, you must steal atleast 50 items and sell them to get promoted from pickpocket, pretty clever move by the designers in my opinion. If you haven't found them yet, and don't want to find them by yourself, read the next spoiler below.

**MAJOR SPOILER**

Spoiler:

Bribe or influence a beggar up to 100 and then ask him about the Gray Fox - tell him you want to work with him. He'll then give you a location.

[bysmitty]

Thank you for the **MAJOR SPOILER** jjacob!!! I will try that right away!



*edit* Bah...

Spoiler:

Deposition maxed out at 93. No luck.

Oblivion makes me want to load up Morrowind.

...bysmitty

[avatar_58]

Killing children controversial? It never stopped Richard Gariott in the ultima days. They were in Ultima VII and VIII. In fact, in U8 there was one area loaded with 20 rabid kids that attacked you for no apparent reason.

[Fop]

Originally Posted by bysmitty

*edit* Bah...

That should be enough. At least was for Normal difficulty.

[jjacob]

Originally Posted by bysmitty

Thank you for the **MAJOR SPOILER** jjacob!!! I will try that right away!

*edit* Bah...

Spoiler:

Deposition maxed out at 93. No luck.

Oblivion makes me want to load up Morrowind.

...bysmitty

odd, I could get them up to 100, then again I customized my own character class ("Adventurer", as suggested by the game ) with speechcraft as one of the major skills. Also, as Fop said, that's on normal. Are you playing on hard?

So try upping your speechcraft or even using those Bard robes (they increase personality which I think is also related to speechcraft). Anyway if that doesn't work I'm sure you'll come across a subquest which will lead you to the Thieves Guild, as someone here mentioned something like that.

[Fop]

I'm pretty sure 93 is enough. I had less but it worked.

[insane_cobra]

Eurogamer review is up. 10/10.

[Karmillo]

does nobody know about the sword? Im still trying to find out what giving it back does before I start playing it again