[edlglide]

Originally Posted by bysmitty

I found the dispostion mini-game to be weak at best. I'm glad I can just bribe anyone through the roof and just steal the gold back after. Takes much of the challenge out though.

Awww, those poor monks. I was proud that I was able to do the entire mission without harming a single one. I'm such a nice asassin.

...bysmitty

That's yet another problem with the game -- some of the main skills are useless. There is no reason to ever bother with speechcraft, because you can just bribe people into doing what you want. And there aren't any quests that have an option of using speechcraft to talk your way out of a situation, or anything like that anyways.....you're just automatically attacked by anyone that's supposed to be an enemy and don't even get a chance to try and talk to them.

[Hammerite]

yes but bribery costs MONEY

[Hammerite]

Originally Posted by bysmitty

Awww, those poor monks. I was proud that I was able to do the entire mission without harming a single one. I'm such a nice asassin.
...bysmitty

i didnt kill the nice monks during that mission, what i did was afterwards when i needed blood in the very early hours of morning, so i walk into the house to see two monks in the same bed. now as we know, monks arent allowed to sleep with other people, especially not other monks, so i kill them both, feed on the survivor and then he wakes up and sleeps in the bed that my two victims did sleep in. now, thats just unhygienic and we cant have that in the clergy so i killed him as well.
rotten, rotten monks

[UPtimist]

Originally Posted by Hammerite

yes but bribery costs MONEY

That, and speechcraft is a very easy way to gain levels, if your into that sort of thing... And if it's a major skill

[Dasilva]

I've got to find garlic and poison lotus flowers, I got the vampire dust. Im sick of being a vampire, though its always funny to see him suck blood.

[Aj_]

Originally Posted by UPtimist

That, and speechcraft is a very easy way to gain levels, if your into that sort of thing... And if it's a major skill

You can't fight with speechcraft though, if you level non-combat major skills, and then gain levels, you'll be surrounded by bandit vampire lions in no time, and you can't talk your way out of that one.

[edlglide]

Originally Posted by Aj_

You can't fight with speechcraft though, if you level non-combat major skills, and then gain levels, you'll be surrounded by bandit vampire lions in no time, and you can't talk your way out of that one.

Yeah, exactly. I hate to sound like I'm complaining about everything, but that's one more problem. The game actually gets harder as you level up rather than easier -- you can beat every single mission on the game at level 1 if you want, and that'd be the easiest way to do it because all your opponents are weaklings with low quality armor and weapons whereas you can still have high powered equipment. They should have done some sort of scaling so that quests later in the game have more powerful enemies or something, rather than everything being based on your character's level.

[Aj_]

It's an amazing game, I would score it atleast a 9.0, it's not the greatest RPG ever, but it does use the most advanced technology really well, and it's absolutely huge. Over the past 2 years, outside MMORPGs, Japanese RPGs, and watered down console RPGs(like Jade Empire or Fable), there has been a down turn.

There are plenty of bugs, crashes, gameplay issues(levelling and some of the skills). Just like Bloodlines, I think that the community is doing an amazing job in making a a would-be legend into one of the best games you could play.

Hell, the game has Sean Bean and Patrick Stewart doing voices, I can't remember a RPG with that kind of talent behind the voices since Fallout.

[bysmitty]

Originally Posted by Hammerite

i didnt kill the nice monks during that mission, what i did was afterwards when i needed blood in the very early hours of morning, so i walk into the house to see two monks in the same bed. now as we know, monks arent allowed to sleep with other people, especially not other monks, so i kill them both, feed on the survivor and then he wakes up and sleeps in the bed that my two victims did sleep in. now, thats just unhygienic and we cant have that in the clergy so i killed him as well.
rotten, rotten monks

LMFAO!!! That is hilarious... and so damn evil! Thx man, I needed that laugh.

You actually got me to spit beer out my nose!

...bysmitty

[Hammerite]

when wearing the gray fox mask (you must have finished the thieves guild), steal something in sight of someone and get your crime reported and then take your mask off and go outside and then guards run towards you and all say: "Can I help you?" and "is there a problem sir?" instead of "you thief, pay the fine, rar, rar"

[adventurefan]

Originally Posted by edlglide

The first few Dark Brotherhood missions are definitely the most interesting in the game -- they're a departure from the FedEx "go and kill this person and get this thing and bring it back to this person" that is probably 90% of Oblivion's gameplay.

Ah, maybe I wouldn't like this so much after all. I've been on the verge of buying it for a while now, partly because it's so detailed, but also since I was under the impression that quests could be solved in different ways. I tend to be quite bad at hack and slash type games, and games like that are not my favourites..
Can anyone recommend a good RPG where killing stuff isn't the primary goal?

[bysmitty]

Who's hacking and slashing? I'm a master at sneak and marksman. I just sneak around and pick off baddies from across the room before they even know I'm there. It's incredibly fun and satisfying. Don't let a fear of combat keep you away from this game. The combat isn't really that difficult (especially since there is a difficulty slider) and if you limit how often you level up, you basically can't die. Plus there is a god mode cheat if you really get stuck. Basically, fighting is nothing to worry about. Anyways, I find the most fun being from the personal challenges I give myself through the game. Like pick pocketing some important duke surrounded by bodyguards, looting everything from a dungeon without killing anyone, or stealing some very secured item.

...bysmitty

[Hammerite]

to support that, the thieves guild or dark brotherhood rewards you with sweet bonuses if you arent seen by guards.

[edlglide]

Originally Posted by adventurefan

Ah, maybe I wouldn't like this so much after all. I've been on the verge of buying it for a while now, partly because it's so detailed, but also since I was under the impression that quests could be solved in different ways. I tend to be quite bad at hack and slash type games, and games like that are not my favourites..
Can anyone recommend a good RPG where killing stuff isn't the primary goal?

It's a game worth playing (although overhyped in my opinion), but despite what some of these people have said, you will deal with quite a lot of combat. Most of the main quests involve going through long dungeons full of monsters, and you're going to need to kill them one way or another. As bysmitty said, there is a difficulty slider and a god mode, but honestly there's very little reason to play the game if you're going to do that. The gameplay is almost entirely based around combat.

If you want an RPG that's really open-ended with a fairly non-linear storyline, and also one that allows you options to avoid most combat, try to find a copy of Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura. It came out in 2001, and if you do find a copy, make sure you download the patch as well because the standard release has some bugs. It's a 3rd person game rather than 1st like Oblivion, and you can recruit NPCs to come with you (which is advisable for story reasons as well as combat aid) -- it's pretty easy to talk your way out of most combat in the game, but with the right NPCs, they'll easily take care of what combat you do get into.

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by adventurefan

Ah, maybe I wouldn't like this so much after all. I've been on the verge of buying it for a while now, partly because it's so detailed, but also since I was under the impression that quests could be solved in different ways. I tend to be quite bad at hack and slash type games, and games like that are not my favourites..
Can anyone recommend a good RPG where killing stuff isn't the primary goal?

There's a lot of killing stuff in Oblivion, but it's still much more than that. And know that I'm exactly like you; killing stuff bores me.

The ultimate RPG for adventurers: Anachronox. Few fights, a great atmophere, and... well, you'll see. Plus the fighting is turn-based.

Planescape Torment is ok too, and I have good memories of Fallout.

[Hammerite]

The continuous hacky slashy killy everything killing bores me after a while but killing the nice monks (and murdering people who when i ask for 'rumours' give me INFORMATIVE ADVICE ABOUT HEALING PROPERTIES OF VENSION AND SOME OTHER THING! THAT'S INFO DAMMIT, NOT JUICY RUMOURFILLED GOSSIP!!) was just full of wholesome family fun.

[Talas]

Originally Posted by Ninth

The ultimate RPG for adventurers: Anachronox. Few fights, a great atmophere, and... well, you'll see. Plus the fighting is turn-based.

I agree, but I felt the end was really rushed.

[Hammerite]

I truly am an evil guy I have decided.
With the Gray Cowl on, I betted on a fight at the Arena and then killed one of the toffy spectators because he looked funny and his name was Wilbur and then suddenly the others start going: "STOP THAT! WHAT WHAT!" so I killed them to.
I then went to fight myself and realised I'd have to wait about 11 hours till 9AM, so what to do till then?
I go to the prison in hopes of poisoning the Jailor with a poison apple, but I got bored when he didnt eat it so I hacked him to death along with a soldier who helped him, I then went mad and killed the Imperial Captain, Giovanni Wossname and then killed everyone there, and I now own the prison.
I also killed the prison guards on the first two floors of the Palace because they wouldnt let me go anywhere else and then had a nice conversation about the Elder Council with that nerd who does nothing but sit alone at the big council table all day.
And I am now the first member of a vampire-hunting organisation in the Imperial City... who is a vampire.

[seebaruk]

Sounds like fun! I'm getting a little bored with the guild quests now so think I may have to go on a couple of rampages myself. I tried killing everyone in a town once (the one with the river running through it) and managed to take down 5 or 6 guards and kill lots of civilians, but some magical twat schooled me. I love killing guards, they're such annoying sods.

[jjacob]

Has anyone tried the 1.1 beta patch yet? If so, does it have better performance?