Oblivion Rules of Thumb

Post by alsnuts2 (391 posts) See mini bio

886 ACH / 14900 P

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Picked up GOTY ed. Oblivion today. I played Fallout 3 and really enjoyed it and I know Oblivion is much different tone-wise but, lets be honest it is July and I need something to sink some time into until the drought of good games is over.

That being said, is there any pointers or good rules to live by in oblivion? I dont need all the detail of a FAQ or walkthrough or anything just a rough outline for success.

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by Ginger_Avenger (176 posts) See mini bio

994 ACH / 19614 P

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Jump, jump, and jump some more as the more you do it the higher you are able to jump

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by DECA555 (316 posts) See mini bio

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Never become a vampire.

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by jakob187 (9,178 posts) See mini bio

2057 ACH / 39355 P

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Athletics, Acrobatics, Blade, Blunt, and Speechcraft are the quickest ways to leveling.

Also, do the Arena on the lowest difficulty right off the bat. It's in the Imperial City. Getting through all of these, which takes all of about 20-30 minutes, will net you about 6,000 gold. It's worth it in the end. Other than that, get lost in that shit. Personally, I hate the game...but I never got the achievements on the Xbox I play on now...so I'm replaying it now...

Oh, and join Thieves' Guild before Mages' Guild. You'll have to steal something from the Mages' Guild at one point, and it's tougher to do if you are a part of the Mages' Guild.

Another thing: save before you lockpick ANYTHING! Lockpicks seem to disappear less often from breaking when you are saving beforehand. If you fail, load your game back up. = D

Edited 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by FlamingHobo (2,604 posts) See mini bio

1907 ACH / 35100 P

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@DECA555 said:

" Never become a vampire. "

Agreed.
Check out the Thieve's Guild and The Dark Brotherhood, they offer very interesting and engrossing storylines.

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by bwooduhs (1,062 posts) See mini bio

1245 ACH / 24078 P

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Make sure you understand how the levelling works because otherwise you'll be sitting on level 1 for a long time.

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by DECA555 (316 posts) See mini bio

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@FlamingHobo: yes i enjoyed both of those side quests. Becoming a vampire is the worst mistake you can make. Oh and do the fighters guild tourny really soon after beginning.

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by Out_On_Bail (1,194 posts) See mini bio

1238 ACH / 21602 P

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Jakob gave the best advice possible, Save every time you are about to lockpick. You'll never run out that way.

Save often! That's also incredibly important.

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by ManMadeGod (463 posts) See mini bio

1358 ACH / 29528 P

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@jakob187 said:

Another thing: save before you lockpick ANYTHING! Lockpicks seem to disappear less often from breaking when you are saving beforehand. If you fail, load your game back up. = D
"

Or you could just get the skeleton key asap.

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by Atlas (693 posts) See mini bio

1068 ACH / 19100 P

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The best bit of advice I can give for you playing Oblivion is this; use some self control. Yes, you can save before you pick every lock. Yes, you can fast travel everywhere. Yes, you can legally loot the guilds for tons of gold early on. But my advice is don't. You'll enjoy Oblivion much more if you don't exploit these flaws. Yes they're there, but Oblivion is all about immersion, and all these things can serve to break it. Is it the game's fault that they're there in the first place? Maybe. But that doesn't mean that we can't take responsibility for our actions occasionally. I think you'll enjoy the game more if you can use a little self control.

Oblivion is such a personal experience about free choice I can't run off a list of things you should do while playing. You'll find your own style of playing, in the same way I did. However, I will share with you ten things to do that aren't related to anything terribly important, but do so much to give the game character and flavour that I think they are important.

1) Read the note on Thoronir's desk in the Copious Coinpurse
2) Have an awkward conversation with Falanu Hlaalu in Skingrad
3) Admire a beautiful sunset from Anvil Harbour
4) Visit the Bravil Skooma Den
5) Find the giant mudcrab
6) Find the world's worst troll
7) Take the game's two longest walks - Anvil to Cheydinhal, and Bruma to Leyawiin - without fast travelling
8) Meet a mad Wood Elf in Anvil
9) Play as a vampire character
10) Heed the wise words of M'aiq the Liar

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by End_Boss (1,914 posts) See mini bio

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Although I can understand some dislike playing a vampire, I don't think its fair to discount the experience entirely. My assassin/thief character is a vampire, and I find it more of an asset than an encumbrance, as so many seem to believe. Yes, I'm sure for some feeding can be a chore (vampire fighters seem like they would have a particularly hard go of it), but if you're sneaking around in someone's house in the middle of the night in an attempt to rob them blind anyway, it really isn't much of a leap to simply stop by their room while you're at it and indulge in a little bloodsucking.

The only advice I would give you is to not take any advice that would prevent you from experiencing every aspect of this game you can (including vampirism). Also, at some point you should play a mage, summon a zombie and watch it teabag everything within reach. Hilarious.

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by alsnuts2 (391 posts) See mini bio

886 ACH / 14900 P

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These are all awesome suggestions and I will Head straight over to the Arena and jump the whole way. I am looking forward to the experience.

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by TheGreatGuero (2,932 posts) See mini bio

1064 ACH / 18651 P

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Be careful not to steal stuff on accident.

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by jakob187 (9,178 posts) See mini bio

2057 ACH / 39355 P

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@ManMadeGod said:

" @jakob187 said:
"Another thing: save before you lockpick ANYTHING! Lockpicks seem to disappear less often from breaking when you are saving beforehand. If you fail, load your game back up. = D"
Or you could just get the skeleton key asap. "

Didn't know about that. I've only achievement-whored the game. I don't honestly care about it. Those are simply the few things that I've picked up over the course of time. = / So tell me MORE about this "skeleton key". lol

@bwooduhs said:

" Make sure you understand how the levelling works because otherwise you'll be sitting on level 1 for a long time. "

ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! You gotta remember that working on your skills is how you level your character up, not a general XP system from killing stuff. The first time I ever played, I wondered why I was through about 10 hours of gameplay and still level 1. Then I found out I was too accustomed to the way that leveling works in MOST RPG games...and felt like an idiot for not paying attention.

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by Satune (285 posts) See mini bio

824 ACH / 9885 P

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Go into a shop, jump onto the table crowded with random objects, and start running around on it. Stuff will be flying in no time!

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by PeasForFees (1,568 posts) See mini bio

490 ACH / 7640 P

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@jakob187:

When you are around level 19? you can do a daedric quest for Nocturnal to get the skeleton key which is an unbreakable lock pick

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by Claude (3,207 posts) See mini bio

238 ACH / 3847 P

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When you find the city Cheydinhal, there's a river and a hill in the city... more of a swim hole, find it and jump "dive" into the river, run back up and do it again and again. I had great times finding high places to dive. Sometimes, I would not make it.

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by jakob187 (9,178 posts) See mini bio

2057 ACH / 39355 P

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@Claude said:

" When you find the city Cheydinhal, there's a river and a hill in the city... more of a swim hole, find it and jump "dive" into the river, run back up and do it again and again. I had great times finding high places to dive. Sometimes, I would not make it. "

LULZ

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by Claude (3,207 posts) See mini bio

238 ACH / 3847 P

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@jakob187 said:

" @Claude said:
" When you find the city Cheydinhal, there's a river and a hill in the city... more of a swim hole, find it and jump "dive" into the river, run back up and do it again and again. I had great times finding high places to dive. Sometimes, I would not make it. "
LULZ "

What? I picked flowers and did some diving. So... I had a maid and an adoring fan who lived in one of my houses too. Good times.

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by pweidman (249 posts) See mini bio

1498 ACH / 31626 P

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First, be ready to have yur freetime owned for months. Second, the game is very immersive and huge...just get into it and have a blast. BTW, the guide to the game is very helpful for all the odds and ends you look for....I used mine quite a bit.

Edited 4 months, 1 week ago

Post by Bogus (1 posts) See mini bio

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Since you have the GoTY edition, you must play Shivering Isles, going at higher levels nets you better gear (which is pretty awesome even at low levels) but it will be significantly more difficult. The content here was a great deal harder than I anticipated when I first went, do not make this mistake, be prepared for tougher things than outside the Isles.

The only reason I still play Oblivion is for that expansion, the storyline is exciting, the NPCs are incredibly funny, the entire experience is just amazing. You have two paths to take in many ways throughout that storyline and I'd suggest keeping to saves so you can experience both. Also, if you enjoy humor in your dialogues be sure to speak to EVERY NPC you can there, the personalities are just fun to interact with. Sheogorath and his assistant will probably be the reason you go through all the Shivering Isles content.

Enjoy Oblivion, the main story was rather boring to me but the side quests, DLC and guilds more than make up for it. Prepare to get lost for a while.

I signed up for the sole purpose of telling you to make sure you play the Shivering Isles expansion. I'm also running on very little sleep so forgive any typos/run-ons/lateness/crazy. =P

Posted 4 months ago

Post by Ryu (213 posts) See mini bio

1603 ACH / 34610 P

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If you find yourself struggling or wanting more of a challenge you can change the game difficulty from the options menu.

Posted 4 months ago

Post by OmegaPirate (2,918 posts) See mini bio

2480 ACH / 42000 P

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Get the horse armour

Posted 4 months ago

Post by alsnuts2 (391 posts) See mini bio

886 ACH / 14900 P

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Okay I am a week into this game and a few observations:

1)Jesus christ the depth in this game could crush a piece of coal into a diamond.

2) It definitely doesnt have that "Fun Factor" Fallout 3 had. I can only handle about half of a side mission per session. Most of that has to do with the tone and difficulty which I think is pretty unforgiving.

Im sure there are others, but I was wondering something and thought Id through it out to the GB community.

At what point do I start feeling like a badass? for me that was what was great about Fallout 3 was starting out the game trying to figure out how to kill 3 bloatflies with 4 bullets and then progressing to the point where you saw a deathclaw comming and pulled out your bare fists to make it a fair fight. The way Oblivion Levels and scales everything I have a feeling this might be a long way from happening. I just closed the first Oblivion Gate and I am sitting at lvl 6. Hows my driving?

Posted 4 months ago

Post by Intrepid (62 posts) See mini bio

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The 'Personality' attribute is the least important in the game.

I actually kinda enjoyed being a vampire, aside from making your character look like ass, I'm loving the strength bonuses.

Posted 4 months ago

Post by TheMustacheHero (3,224 posts) See mini bio

287 ACH / 0 P

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There will be subtle changes in uses of weapons and skills as you master them. Example: Once you become a master marksman you can pull the left trigger while having an arrow notched back to zoom in. The game does not exactly tell you these changes though.
Another thing is when becoming a master at acrobatics you are able to jump on water, if timed correctly you can skip over large lakes easily.

Edited 4 months ago

Post by Nasar7 (614 posts) See mini bio

252 ACH / 5140 P

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@alsnuts2:

"The way Oblivion Levels and scales everything I have a feeling this might be a long way from happening. I just closed the first Oblivion Gate and I am sitting at lvl 6. Hows my driving? "

You just hit the nail on the head. You will never feel like a badass thanks to Oblivion's broken leveling system. My advice is to sell your copy of it and get the PC version instead so you can download mods that fix it. And congrats on your first oblivion gate, only a million more just like it to go. =P

Posted 4 months ago

Post by Intrepid (62 posts) See mini bio

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I would also encourage you to download the unofficial patches for both the main game and shivering isles as it fixes things Bethesda is too lazy to. The mod community for this game still seems pretty strong and there are a lot of nice mods out there. Have fun.

Posted 4 months ago

Post by Mordukai (2,444 posts) See mini bio

1344 ACH / 25895 P

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@alsnuts2: Do the Dark Brotherhood quest.

Posted 4 months ago

Post by alsnuts2 (391 posts) See mini bio

886 ACH / 14900 P

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alas, I have always been an unwashed uneducated console gamer

Posted 4 months ago

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