RPGWatch Forums - The Let's Rant and Rave About Oblivion Thread

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Relayer (Post 1060956932)

And too much time AND money is spent these days on voice acting and graphics when involving gameplay is what matters.

Here we go again. And who is demanding great graphics and great voiceacting ? Gamers. And editors of magazines, of course, whose influence on the industry mustn't be underestimated.

It's a vicious circle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer (Post 1060957025)

I don't really think gamers are demanding great voiceacting. Probably most just read the text and skip the voice. I know I do.

Really, it's not the gamers but the publishers. They demand things that sell in high quantity, to pay back the initial investment. Fair enough, but that leaves more niche products, like good games, out in the cold.

Most publishers have it in their heads that only graphically pleasing, state-of-the-art looking games that mimic others that have sold well in the past will sell. Guess what? Our turn based RPGs didn't sell in those numbers. Zelda did. Thus, they slap some RPG elements on a Zelda clone to appease those who claim to be RPG fans, and draw in the most buyers they can.

Same thing goes for turn based strategy. Save civilization, they tend not to sell all that great. So what do we get? Warcraft clones. Look at MMO's. WoW clones are the most prevalent; if they don't mimic it entirely then they mimic the look and interface at least, if not the setting.

It's rare that a big-name publisher tries something "risky", like release a platformer with NES-style graphics. Sometimes, though, it's a hit. Really no less likely a hit than the "fancy modern 3D hyper realistic" stuff, when you look at it. But oh well. That's what indies are for. Good games.

I love Oblivion, but that being said I played it quite highly modded. If it were not for the mods I doubt I would have enjoyed it nearly as much (like level slow, chase camera mod and low loot). But how I've got it set up now it's nearly perfect. Not Fallout 2 perfect, but as close as I can realistically expect.

That's one thing I don't like about having to make the switch to consoles (I couldn't afford to keep upgrading the PC), you can't use mods. I really wish you could, then I could have modded Fallout 3 and made it much better.

The way I've got it now, I love Oblivion so much I wish I could just keep playing and playing, but I just can't stand to do the same thing over and over. That's why if I could have my choice of a super power it would be to selectively delete my own memories, then I could forget everything about it and keep playing it like it was the first time. How great that would be *sigh*.

Either that or force powers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by human_male (Post 1060967598)

The way I've got it now, I love Oblivion so much I wish I could just keep playing and playing.

Well……. are you gonna tell us which mods you're using or not? ;)

Definitely cough up those mods :)

I'm always interested in what mods people are using that made the game better for them.

I'm willing to bet you have at least put on there FCOM with OOO, MMM and Franseco's. It was a pain to get that to work, but when I finally did it made a huge difference.

Any mods from this site?
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Must_Have_Mods

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDR13 (Post 1060967608)

Well……. are you gonna tell us which mods you're using or not? ;)

Certainly;

No Persistent Enchantment Glow. So you're not constantly glowing from wearing enchanted armour. Essential.

Chase Camera Mod. Makes the chase camera act like it does in Morrowind and I edited it so you can only zoom out as far as the camera does in Morrowind. That stops it zooming right out whenever you sit down, stand up, mount/dismount your horse ect. Also essential.

Deadlier Traps. Makes the booby traps in caves instantly fatal, not essential but I like it.

Level Slow. Slows down the rate you gain a level from between one and four times. I use x3. Essential and oh how I wish I could use something like this for Fallout 3 on the 360.

MCalebs Decompose Corpse. Handy to remove the clutter of dead bandits and stuff since they're too heavy to just pick up like you can in Fallout 3 (and make little piles).

Not Enough Charge. Stops the annoying "your enchanted weapon doesn't have enough charge" message.

My Fighter's Guild Chests. Adds a player safe chest and player only bed in each fighter's guild hall and DB sanctuary. And allows the player to use that one bed on the ground floor in Anvil that would be perfect for the player but actually belongs to Azan.

My House For Sale Revamp. Adds a few more decorations and another shelf and chest in the shack in the Imperial City.

No Quest Items. So you can drop quest items.

Respawn Timer Changer. So you can edit how quickly dungeons respawn. I always found it silly that a day after I'd cleaned a place out everything came back to life.

Natural Wildlife. Makes animals not automatically attack you.

Unoffical Equipment Rarity Patch. Makes valuable loot (like high end weapons and armour) much, much rarer. Very austere, but now you'll never, EVER see a bandit wearing elven, ebony or daedric armour. Essential.

Unoffical Mod Variety Generation. Mixes up the creatures in dungeons so they're not always the ones most appropriate to your level.

One that I forget what it's called but it removes the quest marker from the compass and makes all the items in the inventory smaller.

And my own No Deliver the Amulet Journal Entries. I made this because I wanted to start a new game without going through the opening dungeon and where I wasn't "the chosen one". I found a couple of alternate start mods but they weren't quite what I wanted. Making my own alternate start mod was a bit beyond me, so I just fast travel from the sewer to the docks of Anvil and, ahem… pretend my game's starting right there. And the journal doesn't mention anything about the Amulet of Kings. Instead it assumes I've just escaped a slave ship and washed up at the docks in Anvil. It also locks the door to Weynon Priory, cutting off the main quest completely.

Oh and I also edited the Mehrunes Razor DLC to remove the enchantment. I didn't like the disintergrate armour enchantment using up the charge all the time. I tried to just remove that one but it didn't work so I removed both. Now it's just an extremely wicked looking, big daedric dagger and I love it. Very good if you use the equipment rarity patch which is so austere you'll basically never find an actual daedric dagger.

And that's about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by skavenhorde (Post 1060967623)

No I don't think so. I don't think I know those ones. But I'll definitely have a good look through there if I ever play the game again.

I have the itch to play it now actually, but then I think about just doing the same old thing over again. I wish they'd never stopped making expansions. Why only one? Why?

Thanks, human. I'll look into some of those mods the next time I get the itch to play Oblivion.

I've been in love with Oblivion several times - based on the ton of mods I always use to try and enhance the game.

But I never get past completing the Dark Brotherhood questline before it dawns on me how dreadfully stale and derivative it all really is…

Even WITH a zillion mods.

@human_male: Which of those mods removes the level scaling?

Quote:

Originally Posted by bkrueger (Post 1060967738)

@human_male: Which of those mods removes the level scaling?

I don't think it removes the scaling exactly. What it does is mixes the creatures up a bit, so for example even at high levels you might encounter a rat or simple skeleton. But you won't run into a land dreugh at level one. I'd actually like one like that. Especially if it gave a higher chance of finding a very high level monster the more remote the dungeon.

But anyway it's the Unofficial Mob Variety Generation v1.0 by PlasticFoamMan.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bkrueger (Post 1060967738)

@human_male: Which of those mods removes the level scaling?

If you can put up with a bit complicated installation procedure, try FCOM: Convergence.
It changes the game rather significantly for the better imo and among other things it shatters level scaling quite a bit.
Detailed installation instruction are here:
http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/convergence.html

You might want to checkout the dude´s whole site since it lists quite a few solid mods: http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/
Check out the quest mods there, some are pretty interesting.

Since I´m playing a battlemage of sorts I´m also using some magic enhancing mods, namely LAME, Supreme Magicka and Midas Magic. They play nicely together and I think that especially for magic heavy character they´re almost a must.

There are also some nice atmosphere enhancing mods, especially Better Cities, Unique Landscapes, All Natural Weather and Animated Window Lighting System.

Among others I also use Always +4 Modifiers mod which removes the need to grind skills in order to get better modifiers at level up. It may be a bit cheaty but especially with FCOM is doesn´t feel unbalancing.

Also, I´d say some interface replacer, like Dark UI which I´m using, is a must.

Quote:

Originally Posted by skavenhorde (Post 1060967623)

I'm always interested in what mods people are using that made the game better for them.

Probably won´t be of much use, but here´s my load order :):

Spoiler

I´m also using some texture replacers, mainly Quarl Redimized and Bomret´s Shivering Isles Texture Pack, plus I´ve copied all music from Morrowind into it since it rocks.
I was setting it up almost whole weekend but the resulting clusterfuck of a game works pretty well as occasional diversion.
Surely I won´t play through all those quest mods in there but I like to have options :).

Wow, some of you really get crazy with mods. :lol:

I haven't played Oblivion since shortly after it was released, but I plan on playing it after I replay Morrowind soon. I'll probably just go with Francesco's leveling mod, as well as something that enhances the textures in the distance.

You have to try out FCOM. It's amazing. It changed the whole game…well almost. I wish it changed the story:)

It's a pain in the butt to get going. You pick which of the huge mods you want to put in there and it'll make it so they'll work together. Once it's all working together it's totally worth the time and effort you put in.

FCOM homepage: http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/convergence.html

Also I used a lot of mods from this guy who posted his list at rpgcodex. I highly recommend you try out these two at least:

Kobu's Character Advancement System - completely overhauls the way your skills and stats go up. Skills affect more than one stat. Endurance changes change your life retroactively, so no need to level END early or be gimped for HPs. etc etc etc.

and

Persuasion Overhaul - removes the fucking bloody stupid idiot crappy minigame. Now get a speech option "persuade", then all 4 choices. you have to choose which you want to use, and the game calculates for each combination of race, class, stats, gender, which probability you have for each option. You, of course, have to guess / get a feel for it.

These made a big difference in the game. If you prefer a little more realism in your game then you have to get Real Hunger and Real Sleep. It's not as bad as it sounds.

There is another mod that I didn't list called realistic fatigue. However, I can't recommend that one. That one while making the game more real was too annoying for me. Oblivion is huge and realistic fatigue just made travelling a pain.

Enhanced Daedric Invasion
Bank of Cyrodiil
Real Sleep
Martigen's Hunting and Crafting
Less Annoying Magic Experience
Living Economy
Real Hunger
Safer Roads and Spawn Rates Reduced
DarNified DarkUI
Blind Lockpicking
Lockpicks by Grumblepunk
Quest Award Leveller

The ones that are in bold are a ton of fun. Even the blind lockpicking. I wasn't too sure about that one. It just puts a panel so you can't see the tumblers. It's fun trying to use the sound of the tumblers to lockpick the lock.

The persuasion overhaul is a must. It totally changes the whole minigame to use your stats instead of that silly minigame.

Edit: @DeepO What's 300_Lore_Dialogue_Updated.esp
Does that add more to the dialogue? I've been looking for mods that do that.

Also, what is druid.esp? That sounds intersting.

Thanks for the load order. That's my biggest problem with having all these mods. I never quite know if my load order is correct or not :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by skavenhorde (Post 1060967784)

Edit: @DeepO What's 300_Lore_Dialogue_Updated.esp
Does that add more to the dialogue? I've been looking for mods that do that.

Also, what is druid.esp? That sounds intersting.

Thanks for the load order. That's my biggest problem with having all these mods. I never quite know if my load order is correct or not :)

Yep, 300 LDU adds quite a lot of lore topics to NPCs, based on their class etc., similarily as was in Morrowind.
Lore Dialogue 300 Updated

You might want to check out Kragenir´s Death Quest since besides its main quest it adds a lot of additional dialogues throughout the game too.
Kragenir´s Death Quest

…as well as Integration - The Stranded Light which adds a new guild, lots of other quests and contains tons of lore dialogue. A lots of ties-in with Morrowind and Shivering Isles, etc.
Its quests are significantly harder than vanilla ones, often contain a lot of various skill and attribute checks in dialogues, are very diverse and don´t use quest marker. Some of its characters may look a bit cheesy and some quests are maybe a bit too on the vague side, but as a whole this mod is seriously impressive.
Integration

Path of the Druid adds various druid themed skills/abilities/spells which you can progressively gain upon level up. Its summons may be slightly bit overpowered, but overall it´s a very well thought out mod. There´s a short quest you need to do in order to start the path.
Path of the Druid

For load order I used BOSS (Better Oblivion Sorting Software) which is a rather effective tool and greatly helps to cut the ordering hassle.
It doesn´t recognize all the mods, so those are needed to sort manually.
BOSS

Thanks, I'll be adding those to Oblivion on my next play.

I can't tell you how hard it is to not load this up right now, but I just have too much on my plate right now to start this one.

Thanks for the BOSS. That will help a lot.

You´re welcome!

(edited 2 more lore-y mods you might want to check out too into my previous post)

I'm intrigued by the persuation and blind lockpicking ones, skavenhorde. The out of the box persuation mini game does suck when you think about it. It negates the need for having a speechcraft skill, as does lockpicking. I wonder if they did that deliberately. I much prefer the lockpicking in Fallout 3, where you can't attempt to pick a lock unless you have a high enough skill. Is there a mod like that for Oblivion?

Also, has anyone ever seen a really good vampire mod? I hate the system in the game because it messes my face up. My pretty, pretty face. I tried a comprehensive mod that more or less made it impossible to travel anywhere in the daylight, so that was no good.

I'm not sure about the vampire mods. Never used one or even became a vampire before in Oblivion. I save my vampire fetish for Bloodlines;)

I did a quick search over at planetelderscrolls and I think this is what you want:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.co…s.Detail&id=62

It gets rid of the vampire face and leaves your normal one.

There are literally dozens if not hundreds of vampire mods. Some on that site, some at others. Just search "vampire" over there or google "oblvion vampire mod" and you'll have a whole schmorgesborg of mods to choose from.

This mod will use your lockpicking skill rather than the minigame(exactly like Morrowind):
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.co…Detail&id=4553

I still prefer the blind lockpicking one. I don't mind minigames as long as they're not too easy. That blind locking mod makes the game difficult, but not impossible depending on your skill level.

The persuasion overhaul is definetely worth loading as a mod. That minigame was stupid and that mod gets rid of it totally.

Hope that helps.