TES 4: Oblivion

[Teslacoil]

i all rdy bought the game , but still waiting for my new graphics card before installing ut....

geeforce 7800GT + raptor 30gb + 2 gb 400 samsung memories + p4 3.0ghz so when i get the card i'm gonna enjoy the game at top graphics anyway and cancel wow / daoc subs for 3 month's

morrowind rocked hard i totally missed an entire summer ( may/june/july/august) of 03 i installed game and then woke up in middle of august ;p

 

[tris-]

tesla your spec is like mine apart from the 2GB. i only have 1GB in dual channel mode. i noticed the fps drops like mad when fighting in open places or when turning round it isnt smooth.

maybe your 1gb will make a big dif, but im just saying dont count on it atm

 

[Teslacoil]

tesla your spec is like mine apart from the 2GB. i only have 1GB in dual channel mode. i noticed the fps drops like mad when fighting in open places or when turning round it isnt smooth.

maybe your 1gb will make a big dif, but im just saying dont count on it atm

dammit don't ruin it for me !! i don't wanna buy the 7800GTX!

 

[Konah]

i find its very playable in 1024x768 even on my ancient setup (xp1800+/9800pro@474c382r/1gb) so i think youll be fine. sure it could be prettier/faster/higher rez, but it is playable.

 

[Saggy]

Xbox360 + 44" screen (720p/1080i) + 5.1 Home-Theater =
PC + 44" screen/19" CRT/17" TFT + 5.1 Home-Theater = almost - sounds are shit compared to Xbox :S Not that it matters to me really - only playing it on PC (laptop) while travelling so using headphones anyway. Just need to buy wired Xbox360 controller (or does wireless work on PC's yet?), keyboard+mouse really sucks while playing on train

And the game? Rocks. Simply rocks.

 

[Teslacoil]

this game i think ain't playable consol such a s xbox 360 sure u get the best graphic u can out of the game for consol BUT the controls suck compared to mouse/keyboard on RP games IMO consol = NO FEELING.

 

[Saggy]

this game i think ain't playable consol such a s xbox 360 sure u get the best graphic u can out of the game for consol BUT the controls suck compared to mouse/keyboard on RP games IMO consol = NO FEELING.

Personally I prefer Xbox-pad over keyboard+mouse on singleplayer FPS-games (and such) - sure, its harder to play with pad but its far more realistic and therefore it has more feeling Xbox360 controller is just perfect for this game (the controlls are built around that controller so... ) so getting one for PC too. I understand your PoV though.

 

[Vladamir]

Personally I prefer Xbox-pad over keyboard+mouse on singleplayer FPS-games (and such) - sure, its harder to play with pad but its far more realistic and therefore it has more feeling Xbox360 controller is just perfect for this game (the controlls are built around that controller so... ) so getting one for PC too. I understand your PoV though.

Such wisdom

But some of us can't afford a 360

 

[Saggy]

Such wisdom

But some of us can't afford a 360

 

[~Latency~]

It works really well on the xbox 360 pad!

 

[tris-]

pads are good for FPS? ROFL, thanks thats the funniest thing ive heard all day.
lets see the reaction time + accuracy you get on a control stick compared to my mouse and keyboard.

if i had a 360, im fairly sure i wouldnt buy this for it. reason being, pc version allows for unlimited community made mods free of charge. extending game play in all current directions plus new directions yet to be discoverd. 360 version, you are looking at paying for addons. and probably the only addon will be the inevitable expansion pack.

 

[Teslacoil]

Personally I prefer Xbox-pad over keyboard+mouse on singleplayer FPS-games (and such) - sure, its harder to play with pad but its far more realistic and therefore it has more feeling Xbox360 controller is just perfect for this game (the controlls are built around that controller so... ) so getting one for PC too. I understand your PoV though.

i accetpt that , allthough the game is designed to be maxxed out for the xbox360 engine , but you can get a better graphic on computer ( if u have the dollares to back it up ) and that's also the option i wan't with pc fps RP and u don't get THAT feeling on consol ( allthough nintendo 8-bit did do a DAMN FINE job when they relesed , ice climber anyone ? )

 

[Saggy]

pads are good for FPS? ROFL, thanks thats the funniest thing ive heard all day.
lets see the reaction time + accuracy you get on a control stick compared to my mouse and keyboard.

If you are refering to my post...

Personally I prefer Xbox-pad over keyboard+mouse on singleplayer FPS-games (and such) - sure, its harder to play with pad but its far more realistic and therefore it has more feeling Xbox360 controller is just perfect for this game (the controlls are built around that controller so... ) so getting one for PC too. I understand your PoV though.

... the reason I said pads are better is that the reaction time and accuracy indeed does suck compared to mouse+keyboard -> more realistic -> more feeling. Or do you really think you can shoot with the same reaction times and accuracy with a real rifle while strafing+jumping than with mouse+keyboard? I'm not saying its that hard with pad but its closer to that.

 

[Raven]

cant see why anyone wouldd buy any rpg or fps on a console when they can get it on PC, free expansions and mods, patches where needed, keyboard+mouse you can even use a pad if you really want to. all consoles are good for are driving games and beat um ups. thats my opinion anyway.

on topic, now a vampire, at first it was piss annoying, now it rocks, as i am a thief/assasin i just steal someones house key, wait until they go to bed, break in and feed
it adds something more to what is one of the best games i have played in years, already cancelled the auto sub on my daoc accounts for this

 

[Vladamir]

What's all this class stuff about?, im confused

 

[Raven]

well its not really a class, you can do what you like, you have set types, thief, tank, archer, caster etc (about 15 of them) then you can make custom ones where you mix and match abilities. you can become a vampire after completing quests for the dark brotherhood. if you dont feed you get damaged by sunlight, which means you can only move at night.

anyone know if i can join the thieves guild and still get assasin missions from the dark brotherhood?

 

[Naffets]

well its not really a class, you can do what you like, you have set types, thief, tank, archer, caster etc (about 15 of them) then you can make custom ones where you mix and match abilities. you can become a vampire after completing quests for the dark brotherhood. if you dont feed you get damaged by sunlight, which means you can only move at night.

anyone know if i can join the thieves guild and still get assasin missions from the dark brotherhood?

You can afaik

 

[tris-]

joining a guild has no penalties for when you join another

 

[Naffets]

joining a guild has no penalties for when you join another

Yeah, but as part of the thieves guild you cant kill people. Thats why he was asking.

 

[SFXman]

The game is fantastic, although performance truly isn't.
Running the game at 1280x1024, no AA, no bloom, no HDR (not supported), no distant land (inc. buildings etc.), medium water, no shadows except for the int. and ext. sliders at a low setting, vsync off, grass and viewing distance at max.
FPS?
15-35 outside, 20-60 inside.
System?
A64 3500+, 1gb RAM, 256 X800XL...
Resolution makes barely any difference when it comes to framerate. 800x600 compared to this 12x10 is maybe 2 FPS difference...

Playing a L13 "Mercenary", in other words a warrior with mercantile and speechcraft. Blade, heavy armor, armorer, block, athletics, mercantile and speechcraft. Naturally I have strength and endurance as main attributes.
Having a blast.

Also, I found a character called

Spoiler

Umbra. This time she's a woman... unlike in Morrowind.

Couldn't kill her though, and will not either since from what I hear the items are incredibly good and I'd say they would simply ruin the game experience since I haven't even visited Kvatch (main quest location early on in the game...) yet and I'm 30 hours in. Although, if anyone is interested in finding

Spoiler

Umbra

, I'll just say that the dungeon is very visible and not hidden in any way. Even

Spoiler

Umbra

can be found nearly immediately inside....

Started playing this yesterday, its stunning, simply stunning.

Spoiler

It's also a bitch to murder someone to get into the Dark Brotherhood without having all your equipment confiscated

Aside from that its uber.

How do you mean?

Spoiler

You mean that you have to kill someone for them to contact you or... you have to kill someone after they contact you?

If it is the former, than you can without having anything confiscated. How? Well:

Spoiler

Do the quest for the Arena Grand Champion, then after that you challenge the Grand Champion. He accepts... in the arena he will charge at you but then stop. Talk to him and he asks you to kill him. No way out... you kill him and you get contacted by the DB and have a murder count.

I was really pissed off at this as I don't want any of such numbers in my records. Hence I never went for the title anymore, loaded a previous save and moved on, am hoping that I find an alternative to getting the title.

If you are refering to my post...

... the reason I said pads are better is that the reaction time and accuracy indeed does suck compared to mouse+keyboard -> more realistic -> more feeling. Or do you really think you can shoot with the same reaction times and accuracy with a real rifle while strafing+jumping than with mouse+keyboard? I'm not saying its that hard with pad but its closer to that.

Yes. I'd beg to differ with you. The mouse is more realistic as to reaction times with a weapon.
How many times have you run through a course with targets in it and your weapon is a shotgun with real live slugs? I've done it on numerous occasions. Although in some cases I had a pistol and in some a fully automatic rifle.
Honestly, the speed with which you move your crosshair using a mouse is closer to the truth than using a console controller.

 

[Naffets]

The game is fantastic, although performance truly isn't.
Running the game at 1280x1024, no AA, no bloom, no HDR (not supported), no distant land (inc. buildings etc.), medium water, no shadows except for the int. and ext. sliders at a low setting, vsync off, grass and viewing distance at max.
FPS?
15-35 outside, 20-60 inside.
System?
A64 3500+, 1gb RAM, 256 X800XL...
Resolution makes barely any difference when it comes to framerate. 800x600 compared to this 12x10 is maybe 2 FPS difference...

Playing a L13 "Mercenary", in other words a warrior with mercantile and speechcraft. Blade, heavy armor, armorer, block, athletics, mercantile and speechcraft. Naturally I have strength and endurance as main attributes.
Having a blast.

Also, I found a character called

Spoiler

Umbra. This time she's a woman... unlike in Morrowind.

Couldn't kill her though, and will not either since from what I hear the items are incredibly good and I'd say they would simply ruin the game experience since I haven't even visited Kvatch (main quest location early on in the game...) yet and I'm 30 hours in. Although, if anyone is interested in finding

Spoiler

Umbra

, I'll just say that the dungeon is very visible and not hidden in any way. Even

Spoiler

Umbra

can be found nearly immediately inside....

How do you mean?

Spoiler

You mean that you have to kill someone for them to contact you or... you have to kill someone after they contact you?

If it is the former, than you can without having anything confiscated. How? Well:

Spoiler

Do the quest for the Arena Grand Champion, then after that you challenge the Grand Champion. He accepts... in the arena he will charge at you but then stop. Talk to him and he asks you to kill him. No way out... you kill him and you get contacted by the DB and have a murder count.

I was really pissed off at this as I don't want any of such numbers in my records. Hence I never went for the title anymore, loaded a previous save and moved on, am hoping that I find an alternative to getting the title.

Yes. I'd beg to differ with you. The mouse is more realistic as to reaction times with a weapon.
How many times have you run through a course with targets in it and your weapon is a shotgun with real live slugs? I've done it on numerous occasions. Although in some cases I had a pistol and in some a fully automatic rifle.
Honestly, the speed with which you move your crosshair using a mouse is closer to the truth than using a console controller.

Spoiler

Which dungeon lol? I've been in like 12 so far I figured out the dark brotherhood thing anyhow, without being arena champ

 

[Dukat]

If you are refering to my post...

... the reason I said pads are better is that the reaction time and accuracy indeed does suck compared to mouse+keyboard -> more realistic -> more feeling. Or do you really think you can shoot with the same reaction times and accuracy with a real rifle while strafing+jumping than with mouse+keyboard? I'm not saying its that hard with pad but its closer to that.

I kinda can see what you're trying to say but for me I'd prefer to play the game by the games rules, rather than think about the impact the types of input have on the "realism".

Even if you did look at the realism stuff, its still not as cut and dried as you're saying. I dont agree that the pad is any closer to "real life" than a keyboard+mouse.

Surely you would agree that the action of moving the mouse is closer to the real life action of aiming a rifle, rather than that of twiddling a D-pad or whatever?

I've played quite a bit on consoles back in the day, and understand what FPS's are like on them, I managed to get a feel for it, but its never seemed like a 'natural' control interface to me, the D-Pad or stick setup for a start makes things far too limited and awkward.

If you want to go really indepth about it, look at it like this. With the D-pad or stick you are either holding a button down to input movement (lets say up), or moving the stick into the up position, but once you get to the limits of movement, you stop, but the input is still being sent. This to me seems more akin to a vehicles control surfaces.

Where as on the PC you have the mouse, if you move the mouse up, the crosshair moves up, if the mouse doesnt move, neither does the crosshair on the screen. no movement on the mouse means no movement ingame. This to me feels more like what its like to aim a rifle or look around.

I also think you're statment of "Or do you really think you can shoot with the same reaction times and accuracy with a real rifle while strafing+jumping than with mouse+keyboard?" is flawed: its a computer game, the idea is that you do things in the game that you might not necessarily beable to do in real life.

Another point is that the constraints the consoles pad has on people's ability to aim is not realistic, it may well prevent unrealistic accuracy while bunny hopping, but it also prevents realistic accuracy while standing still - you have exactly the same problems aiming while jumping as you do when you're stationary, how realistic is that?

Hopefully I'm making sense here... its kinda hard to explain how it feels, I guess you'll know what I'm trying to say if you've ever been out on a range or through a shooting house.

I would prefer to have an interface that feels natural tbh.

I've always preferred PC's for FPS style gaming for this reason, not to mention a myriad of other reasons - the PC having mods, having the possibility of patches for bugs/glitches, having the possibility of updates with extra content etc, etc.

Anways, just come from another session 'in' oblivion, really impressive. Still cant get over how good it is.

Spoiler

I got a horse earlier, wasnt too impressed though, prefer to walk because if you meet an enemy on your horse you have to dismount, and then the horse is in the way while you're fighting.

Ahh, nearly chopped my own horse up because he was getting in the way a couple of times, so for now I've left the horse behind as a 'just incase' thing.

Still carrying on with the 2hand sword thing, starting to get a real feel for the swordfights, really enjoyable.

 

[Cylian]

Following the story line with a Batlemage atm, and an Sweettalker-Assassin-Thief for a more subtle approach... and haven't done any quest twice yet :worthy:

time most definitly flies by though

<12:00> just 10min!
<18:00> ok, coming!
<18:01> hello ?

 

[Naffets]

Yeah, its addictive as hell. Imagine if daoc pve was as fun

 

[tris-]

i am currently playing it through as a female at the minute. ive come across one quest so far that id be tempted to say, may of turned out differently as a male.

Spoiler

a couple of harlets are robbing drunk married men at a farm house. i am to hunt them down and sort it out. they say i got the looks to join them two. well if i was a man, im sure i wuldnt of been accepted into an all womeans thief band and have to do something else

 

[Dukat]

time most definitly flies by though

<12:00> just 10min!
<18:00> ok, coming!
<18:01> hello ?

heh yea, been playing this pretty much all weekend... need to get some work done at some point today but its going to be hard to pull myself away from the game and get on with it...

Its just so good though, I'm tempted to say its the best game I've ever played, its just so big and theres so much to do, the sword fighting is one part that I really, really like. The way they made the block/parry system is really clever - you cant just go in tapping the attack button and hope for the best because 9 times out of 10 the enemy will walk over you.

Really does just "feel" right.

 

[Thorwyn]

Played it for a couple hours on Sunday.

This game has SOOO many design flaws it´s incredible. First off, there´s this "semi"-tutorial. The first 30-40 minutes of the story, where the game keeps telling you how to pick up items and stuff. Now... get me right here, tutorials are good and everything. But IF they´re making a tutorial, they´d better teach me EVERYTHING instead of just some random basics. They didn´t tell me about the character screen or where to click when I want to open the map. Sure, I can read this up in the manual, but then, the entire idea of a tutorial is redundant. Either make the tutorial complete, or design the game intuitive enough that you won´t need any explanations, or completely do it via manual.
Now AFTER going through all this boring first 40 minutes, they´re asking me what star sign I was born under (giving you certain boni like +10 Dex... now is that good or very good? or where do I need Dex anways?). When that´s done, they´re asking me: oh btw.. what CLASS do you want to play? After 40 minutes into the game/tutorial?! If I want to play the game again with a different class, I need to play the entire tutorial again!?
The complexity of the world is awesome. Lots of towns, lots of factions and people/NPCs to trade/talk to. Then why are the game mechanics so utterly simple? A sword has a "fighting" value of 2. What is 2? The ammount of damage? The number of dice? What´s the difference to another sword with a value of 2 that´s worth 100 gold instead of 20 gold?

Spoiler

You´re bitten by a Vampire at some point and slowly turn into a Vampire. But no message? There´s something happening with my character and they´re not even telling me anything until I accidentally manage to click on my stat screen and see some obscure "disease: 1" and a reduction of CON.
Fundamental thing in gamedesign: if ANYTHING is happening in your environment, give the player some sort of feedback... visual and accustic if possible. You pick a lock... it goes "crack"... attempt failed.

GUI: who in gods name created this GUI?
If an area of a GUI acts as a button, it´s got to LOOK like a button. Coloured health/mana/endurance bars don´t look like a button to me, neither does a compass. If you can´t figure out the fundamental elements of your GUI, or if you have to explain where to click to get to window x, there´s something wrong. Oh... and no visual quickbar.

Combat... against more than 1 opponent, combat is ridiculous. You just click and hope that the guy you want to target is in your crosshair at the time you swing your weapon.

Now, I know that I sound pretty negative. However, the game is really good, nice atmosphere, good gfx. I also respect their decision to make a SP RPG game these days. However, I don´t know why they´re still making all those fundamental mistakes. It´s a pity, because the game had enough potential to become a REAL classic.

Ok.. rant over

 

[tris-]

alot of the things you mention, i feel are meant to be like that. all the way through you are learning stuff bit by bit. but lets say irl, you had a disease. would you just know about it all of a sudden? or would you slowly degenerate and think "hey, hey whats happening here. my constitution aint what it used to be".
same here, you shouldnt know you have a disease untill the disease starts taking a hold of you.

and just think, what do you need dexterity for? then you can translate this into the game. .

imo, some weapons of the same power have various value just because of how they look and what they are made from.
i had an iron sword of say 3 dmg. i found a fine silver sword of 3 dmg but worth 4 times as much. purely, imo, because it was made of silver. i have no idea what 3 dmg means of course. it must be some kind of modifier. but me, im happy to think "5 is more than 3, so it must be more damage".

 

[Thorwyn]

It´s not about what I *know* how things work, it´s about communicating with the player. Of course I know that Dexterity is good for, say, acrobatic maneuvers and that it fits to Rogue classes. But there might be people out there who don´t know that and can´t transfer gaming experience into this new game. And even if it´s obvious, the game needs to tell me, just to confirm my assumptions. As it is, it´s one of those infamous BANG-YOU-ARE-DEAD situations.. where the players walks around a corner and there´s a bad guy shooting him on the spot. Reaction: load an earlier savegame and avoid that corner -> Bad design.

The RL disease example is correct, but this is a game. And the disease is going to influence the entire course of the game fundamentally. That´s why I think I have a right to know that something´s going on. I´m not talking about a blattant message of: "Hey, you´re bitten and you will turn into a vampire in 3 days... HAHA!". But a hint that points you to your stat sheet would have been essential.

Basically, this kind of gameplay is called "keyhole gaming"... you´re always getting a tiny bit of view on the game and it´s your job to memorize those tiny spots and make a whole picture out of it. Perfect for experienced players, crap for casuals. But on the other hand... why enforce a tutorial for experienced gamers?

I agree, some of the things I mentioned were deliberately made by the designers. But that doesn´t make them better. Designers also deliberately "invented" save-spots in other games, regardless of the fact that they´re able to spoil an entire game.

 

[Fana]

It´s not about what I *know* how things work, it´s about communicating with the player. Of course I know that Dexterity is good for, say, acrobatic maneuvers and that it fits to Rogue classes. But there might be people out there who don´t know that and can´t transfer gaming experience into this new game. And even if it´s obvious, the game needs to tell me, just to confirm my assumptions. As it is, it´s one of those infamous BANG-YOU-ARE-DEAD situations.. where the players walks around a corner and there´s a bad guy shooting him on the spot. Reaction: load an earlier savegame and avoid that corner -> Bad design.

The RL disease example is correct, but this is a game. And the disease is going to influence the entire course of the game fundamentally. That´s why I think I have a right to know that something´s going on. I´m not talking about a blattant message of: "Hey, you´re bitten and you will turn into a vampire in 3 days... HAHA!". But a hint that points you to your stat sheet would have been essential.

Basically, this kind of gameplay is called "keyhole gaming"... you´re always getting a tiny bit of view on the game and it´s your job to memorize those tiny spots and make a whole picture out of it. Perfect for experienced players, crap for casuals. But on the other hand... why enforce a tutorial for experienced gamers?

I agree, some of the things I mentioned were deliberately made by the designers. But that doesn´t make them better. Designers also deliberately "invented" save-spots in other games, regardless of the fact that they´re able to spoil an entire game.

I think it has alot to do with the Elderscrolls design philosophy aye - they want you to explore both the gameworld and the game mechanics and learn what works and what doesnt work. F.ex. you will find out that that silver sword, while having the same stats as a steel sword will likely be more effective against certain kinds of opponents (just a guess here but probably works well against werewolfs/vampires etc just like silver is supposed to work in different legends).

Anyway, just ordered the game Couldnt resist it after all the glowing responses from players that ive read now. Just hope my rig will give me a decent gaming experience, but im hopeful after DavidH's post.