Help me want to play Oblivion

[Joemonkey]

I want to play Oblivion, bought it from steam, but want to make sure I get all the best mods before I even start it up. I've searched all over the place and everyone has a "STFU noob read the other stuff that's been posted 1000 times" type attitude that makes me just not want to play the game at all

So, here's what I'm hoping someone can do:

List the best (not goofiest, or most adult) mods out there, the ones that fix any bugs, improve textures, improve UI, etc.

Explain where to get them, and how to install them

is that too much to ask?

 

[fatpat268]

Here's a good Oblivion modding guide:

http://deadendthrills.com/guides/look-good-modded-the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion/

 

[ImpulsE69]

Skip Oblivion and get the Nehrim mod for it (and the mods that make it better).

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I only have a few mods running - for me the game is pretty good without mods, and I want to run it through once before changing anything too drastically.

Good places to go for mods are TESNexus and PlanetElderScrolls. Sometimes a mod will only be in TESN, or it'll only be in PES; sometimes it'll be only somewhere else.

The mods I have now are:

Wilderness Creatures
Unofficial Oblivion Path + Supplement
Regrowing Nirnroot
Natural Weather

 

[soccerballtux]

WARP 9 ENG...AGHGHHHhhhhhh....

tehre do you want to play now

 

[taltamir]

If you have never played oblivion, let me warn you that the leveling system is TERRIBLE and will seriously ruin your fun... unless you learn and do the follow:

this is how it works:
NEVER play the predefined classes, use a custom class (details to follow).

there are TONS of skills, each skill levels up when you use it a certain amount of times (cast X spells of type Y, jump X times, steal X times, etc)
Each skill goes up to 100. When you gain 10 levels in your main skills, your character levels up.

You can finish the game at level 1, ALL enemies power AND gear is 100% dependent on your level, that dirt farmer? he will be the same level as you, the ultimate demon? same level! that random encounter in the fields right outside the capital city? same level! This means you MUST control your level with an iron grip.

To level up, sleep after you have gained enough skill points. You can avoid leveling by not sleeping, but thats too risky, too much of a bother, and not fun. Also, when you level you get 3 "picks", you pick 3 stats and increase them, they increase 1 to 5 points based on how many ranks you gained in a skill that depends on them. So this is where leveling sub skills come into play. If you have leveled up your main skills fast and don't get much sub skills, then you will become weaker as you level up (due to enemies leveling), if you level up after maxing out your main attack skill, you will be become weaker as you level. If you level up due to any social skills, YOU WILL BECOME WEAKER!

The solution, I believe, is simple. Make a custom character, select ONE combat skill (a specific combat magic, melee, bows, etc.. just one!) as a main skill (skill that controls your leveling) and an armor skill (again, just one type of your choice). If you want the game easier, just your main attack skill.

The rest of your main skills should be skills you WILL NEVER USE.

You will thus go from level 1 through 20 (or 10) and it will ONLY happen when you level up your combat skills. So you will not get weaker as you level.

 

[Mike Gayner]

I personally recommend playing vanilla first, then modding.

You can finish the game at level 1, ALL enemies power AND gear is 100% dependent on your level, that dirt farmer? he will be the same level as you, the ultimate demon? same level! that random encounter in the fields right outside the capital city? same level! This means you MUST control your level with an iron grip.

This is a huge exaggeration of the admittedly flawed levelling system.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

If you have never played oblivion, let me warn you that the leveling system is TERRIBLE and will seriously ruin your fun... unless you learn and do the follow:

this is how it works:
NEVER play the predefined classes, use a custom class (details to follow).

there are TONS of skills, each skill levels up when you use it a certain amount of times (cast X spells of type Y, jump X times, steal X times, etc)
Each skill goes up to 100. When you gain 10 levels in your main skills, your character levels up.

You can finish the game at level 1, ALL enemies power AND gear is 100% dependent on your level, that dirt farmer? he will be the same level as you, the ultimate demon? same level! that random encounter in the fields right outside the capital city? same level! This means you MUST control your level with an iron grip.

To level up, sleep after you have gained enough skill points. You can avoid leveling by not sleeping, but thats too risky, too much of a bother, and not fun. Also, when you level you get 3 "picks", you pick 3 stats and increase them, they increase 1 to 5 points based on how many ranks you gained in a skill that depends on them. So this is where leveling sub skills come into play. If you have leveled up your main skills fast and don't get much sub skills, then you will become weaker as you level up (due to enemies leveling), if you level up after maxing out your main attack skill, you will be become weaker as you level. If you level up due to any social skills, YOU WILL BECOME WEAKER!

The solution, I believe, is simple. Make a custom character, select ONE combat skill (a specific combat magic, melee, bows, etc.. just one!) as a main skill (skill that controls your leveling) and an armor skill (again, just one type of your choice). If you want the game easier, just your main attack skill.

The rest of your main skills should be skills you WILL NEVER USE.

You will thus go from level 1 through 20 (or 10) and it will ONLY happen when you level up your combat skills. So you will not get weaker as you level.

This is pretty much the greatest exaggeration I've read. Ever. The levelling system is not that horrible. You don't need an iron grip on your skills to play the game. The whole point of the levelling system is that you pick a class (or make a class) that has the skills that you use most often and as they get better you as a whole get better. If you are dumb enough to pick mercantile, armorer, speechcraft, etc, and no combat/spellcasting skills, that is your rather stupid prerogative. I don't, however, know why you would possibly want to play through the game not doing anything other than the main quest and staying at level 1 the whole time. The entire point of a game is that you enjoy it. Forever remaining a stupid little weakling and cowering from all the non-levelled NPCs in the world is not enjoyable.

That said, there are flaws to the levelling system. It's especially good, for instance, that you finish finding Martin before levelling very much, since the Daedra level, while the guards do not. So if you go at a later level, you need to do a lot more fighting when you could easily let all the guards do the fighting if you get there at level 1.

 

[Maximilian]

I recommend a healthy dose of fallout 3 followed by some new vegas. Oblivion sucks.

 

[Sulaco]

I recommend a healthy dose of fallout 3 followed by some new vegas. Oblivion sucks.

No, it doesn't. Fall Out 3 is excellent, but it has entirely different feel than Oblivion. You can enjoy both. I do.

The hyperbole when talking about Oblivion, and pretty much any "super hyped" game is through the roof.

It's got some hiccups, but pretty much if you don't find the leveling issue to be "teh worst thing evar", you'll enjoy yourself in Oblivion.

 

[Mike Gayner]

The levelling system was fine, and I never completely agreed with the criticisms of it. Like I said above, I played it through vanilla the first time, and I wouldn't have clocked 50+ hours if it was crap.

 

[shortylickens]

I want to play Oblivion, bought it from steam, but want to make sure I get all the best mods before I even start it up. I've searched all over the place and everyone has a "STFU noob read the other stuff that's been posted 1000 times" type attitude that makes me just not want to play the game at all

So, here's what I'm hoping someone can do:

List the best (not goofiest, or most adult) mods out there, the ones that fix any bugs, improve textures, improve UI, etc.

Explain where to get them, and how to install them

is that too much to ask?

Considering we have literally about 2 dozen threads with this exact same subject, yes it is too much to ask.
Do a search.

Also:
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/categories.php

Become a member so you can see all the files and download them.
And the general consensus is that OOO is the best mod.

 

[Ayrahvon]

Plenty of mods that change the leveling system anyway!

 

[KaOTiK]

slap some nude mods in and there ya go

 

[Dumac]

The levelling system was fine, and I never completely agreed with the criticisms of it. Like I said above, I played it through vanilla the first time, and I wouldn't have clocked 50+ hours if it was crap.

The levelling system was terrible, and I completely agree with the criticisms of it. Like I said above, I played it through vanilla the first time, and I would have clocked more than 20 hours if it wasn't crap.

 

[taltamir]

@Mike Gayner: no exaggeration at all here.

This is pretty much the greatest exaggeration I've read. Ever. The levelling system is not that horrible. You don't need an iron grip on your skills to play the game. The whole point of the levelling system is that you pick a class (or make a class) that has the skills that you use most often and as they get better you as a whole get better. If you are dumb enough to pick mercantile, armorer, speechcraft, etc, and no combat/spellcasting skills, that is your rather stupid prerogative.

you completely fail to understand what I wrote. So let me explain it to you...
If you do things how I wrote you will ONLY level up (and thus your enemies will only level up) when you get COMBAT skills.

You can and SHOULD go after the side quests, explore interesting skills, explore places and abilities... and you can! you can do so at your leisure. You will not have the displeasure of finding your enemies getting stronger as your speech skill raises, you will not find yourself getting weaker as you gain levels.

its really simple.

I don't, however, know why you would possibly want to play through the game not doing anything other than the main quest and staying at level 1 the whole time. The entire point of a game is that you enjoy it. Forever remaining a stupid little weakling and cowering from all the non-levelled NPCs in the world is not enjoyable.

Me neither, this is why I DON'T RECOMMEND AVOIDING SLEEP as a method of dealing with the broken. I suggest he pick 1 armor skill and one combat skill as mains for a reason.

 

[Scooby Doo]

slap some nude mods in and there ya go

nGCD is my recommendation for that. :thumbsup:

Wait what?! I thought i was responding to levelling.

 

[Dumac]

@Mike Gayner: no exaggeration at all here.



you completely fail to understand what I wrote. So let me explain it to you...
If you do things how I wrote you will ONLY level up (and thus your enemies will only level up) when you get COMBAT skills.

You can and SHOULD go after the side quests, explore interesting skills, explore places and abilities... and you can! you can do so at your leisure. You will not have the displeasure of finding your enemies getting stronger as your speech skill raises, you will not find yourself getting weaker as you gain levels.

its really simple.


Me neither, this is why I DON'T RECOMMEND AVOIDING SLEEP as a method of dealing with the broken. I suggest he pick 1 armor skill and one combat skill as mains for a reason.

That fact that you even have to discuss the system to this point just shows how fucked up vanilla Oblivion is.

Leveling up in an RPG should be a natural process.

 

[lupi]

Have it, still haven't opened it yet though. The everyone levels with you system just feels so hokey to me.

 

[Edge1]

I want to play Oblivion, bought it from steam, but want to make sure I get all the best mods before I even start it up. I've searched all over the place and everyone has a "STFU noob read the other stuff that's been posted 1000 times" type attitude that makes me just not want to play the game at all

So, here's what I'm hoping someone can do:

List the best (not goofiest, or most adult) mods out there, the ones that fix any bugs, improve textures, improve UI, etc.

Explain where to get them, and how to install them

is that too much to ask?

I just reinstalled Oblivion for my girls. Primarily because they LOVE to build ultra powerful amazonian female kickass types. They're getting older now and I have no problem with them playing this game. They love it.

There are an infinite number of mods. I tried to keep it simple but give them cool fun stuff. I got most of these from TESNexus.

Here's most of what I can remember from the install:
-Oblivion GOTY (1.21.46 or something like that by default)
-Unofficial Oblivion Patch
-OOO
-QTP3
-OBMM
-OBSE
-BT Mod (so you can see more items in the inventory
-Elven Map Redux (prettier map)
-Natural environments
-Quest Award Leveller (addresses the much-whined-about leveling system)
-Tonas Mod store (cool girl outfits - probably not for you)
-Deadly reflex (now that they are older - makes me want to play the game again)
-Akatosh Mount
-Horse Dreamland (surely not something you'll want)
-Slof's Horses
-Dude where's my horse
-The Lost Spires (archeology guild & quests)
-No Psychic Guards
-Kvatch Rebuilt

There are a bunch more but I can't remember them. The first few seem like no-brainers for UI and graphics. There may be better options by now, but I thought the game looked great playing on just a 2.4GHz C2d and 7900GS Extreme. They get the hand-me-down hardware .

Its a great game, despite a lot of the criticism you hear. Very, very entertaining. I never finished the main quest because I got sidetracked too many times. Its easy to do, but can provide some of the most fun. Modding it up is pretty rewarding.

 

[Martimus]

I played over 200 hours without many mods, but I did have a few running (such as the bookmarking houses mod, so you can quicktravel directly to the houses you own.)

The thing that makes the game fun for me is the openendedness, and the variety of quests you can do. Also the fact that the NPC's react to events and each other help with the immersion of the game. It isn't perfect by any means, but it really drew me in when I started playing it. I didn't expect it to be as good as it was, but then I love open ended gameplay better than directed gameplay.

EDIT; I did use the unofficial Oblivion patch to fix the many bugs in the game. If you do nothing else, you should instal that mod.

 

[Joemonkey]

is there a mod loader like for fallout or do I download a bunch of individual zip files and do it that way? this is the kind of guide I was hoping for:

http://www.gog.com/en/news/mod_spotlight_planescape_torment_mods_guide/

 

[taltamir]

This is pretty much the greatest exaggeration I've read. Ever.

I don't, however, know why you would possibly want to play through the game not doing anything other than the main quest and staying at level 1 the whole time. The entire point of a game is that you enjoy it. Forever remaining a stupid little weakling and cowering from all the non-levelled NPCs in the world is not enjoyable.

Actually, I forgot another issue while pointing out that you misread what I said... remaining level 1 is actually makes the game EASIER as time passes.

The damage you deal with your attacks is skill*ability modifier*numbers. Skill goes up to 100... your character level NEVER EVER enters the calculation, except that you CAN gain ability modifiers when leveling (but only enough to make your stronger if you are extremely careful about your leveling rate in sub-skills ranks to optimize your build). The main source of your power is skill ranks. Your character level is used to determine your ENEMIES strength though, and your skill ranks are ignored. It is epic fail! all they had to do was take your highest combat skill, divide by 5, round down, and set that to your char level and the game would be 100 times better. That way max level is 20 (when you have 100 ranks in a combat skill).

So if you chose non relevant skills to be your main, you can max out your skills, doing tons of damage / defense and still have weak enemies. As you do more side quests, quests, explorations, etc you will get stronger and stronger and yet the enemies will remain as weak, you will be one shotting everything. IIRC I tested this and I was one shotting EVERYTHING at about skill 50 while level 1.

However, I find fighting the same enemies FOREVER boring as heck... so I suggest choosing 2 prime combat skills. and NONE of the prime should be secondary skills you use (if you want to do conversation, don't pick conversation), that way you WILL level up and enemies WILL get stronger, to a point. If you do that, than in THEORY you shouldn't have to think about or micromanage your leveling at all beyond your character creation.

 

[jon123]

Never finished Oblivion, but was having lots of fun with it before I stopped playing. Looking forward to the new one.

 

[jdwright]

Skip Oblivion and play Morrowind...WAY WAY more flexible and fun =).