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.
the thing is, you got lucky. My suggestion was NOT to make an easy game, min/max, or powerlevel. Mine was to ensure a smooth leveling scheme where enemies match your power.The leveling system is bad, but you don't *have* to nurse your skills with the same level of OCD determination as suggested in some of these posts . . .
I played vanilla Oblivion and only vanilla Oblivion. Mostly because I'm too lazy to research and download mods and whatnot.
First time, I played "naturally," meaning without any real understanding of the leveling system. It made the game difficult, but not impossible. And it was still enjoyable.
Second time, I knew the leveling mechanics and did as others have suggested and OCD powergamed by exploiting the "flaws" in the system to create a beastly character. Made the game ridiculously easy.
So in conclusion, if you're the OCD type that NEEDS to have the most powerful character ever, either avoid vanilla Oblivion or exploit it using the method so tediously described in this thread. If you don't care about that kind of thing, play casually. It's *possible* to cripple your character to the point of unplayable-ness if you basically do EVERYTHING wrong, but it's unlikely.
I recommend a healthy dose of fallout 3 followed by some new vegas. Oblivion sucks.
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/
FCOM isn't too bad to install now. There's an omod out for it.
So... because of this thread, I figured I'd give a crack at Oblivion and modding again.
Gave up after 2 hours. It's such a pain in the ass. I'll probably end up doing what I did for FO3: Install texture pack, install the unofficial patch, install OOO, 1 or 2 random mods, and be done with it. I applaud those who can have a 100+ item modlist, but it gets really fucking frustrating after a while.
So... because of this thread, I figured I'd give a crack at Oblivion and modding again.
Gave up after 2 hours. It's such a pain in the ass. I'll probably end up doing what I did for FO3: Install texture pack, install the unofficial patch, install OOO, 1 or 2 random mods, and be done with it. I applaud those who can have a 100+ item modlist, but it gets really fucking frustrating after a while.
I too wish for a comprehensive since mod that could combine them all, or at least as many as possible.
Its just too much to manage otherwise.
I too wish for a comprehensive since mod that could combine them all, or at least as many as possible.
Its just too much to manage otherwise.
Honestly, it isn't worth the headache. You spend a couple of days installing and setting up mods, then you have to go chasing stability issues, weird game bugs and so on. And this is coming from someone who used to be heavily involved in the Oblivion modding scene, creating mods and even OBSE plugins, who's very familiar with the details of mod compatibility and so on.
It's just a royal PITA.
It would be nice if Skyrim comes with better tools for managing mods so that there aren't as many headaches with compatibility and so on, but I'm not holding my breath.
It just isn't really feasible with Oblivion. Not only are there tens of thousands of mods out there, but it's very difficult to combine mods together.
It's funny, I went and downloaded FCOM and created the omod for it, thinking that it would be an all inclusive mod that combined four major mods. Nope, it required me to download all those four mods seperately. Not a big deal, but it was the last straw for me.
Couple of reasons, it's other peoples work (ehh) and the seperate mods themselves are updated would result in issues.