Gold: The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

[traveler]

Anyone do the Fighters Stronghold yet?

[TQ]

Not yet as, God help me, I've started another run through Neverwinter Nights 2.
I was playing (and enjoying) The Witcher but Mrs. TQ finished Loki and needed a new something to play, so I saved off my save games so she could have a go at it.
I know at some point I'll be cursing the sheer goofiness of NWN2's pause-style play and it's lack of interesting combat animation but it's always ticked me off that I never read the owner's documentation on how to import my NWN2 character into Mask of The Betrayer. By the time I realized what I had done it was too late to go back and use one of my old saves to import my Fighter and all the cool gear I had accumulated over the course of the game.
Silly me...I thought importing would have been as easy as it had been in the original NWN, but Obsidian, bizarrely, requires you to go back and import your NWN2 character from a previous save point in the original campaign. I had overwritten all of my old saves and had no way to do that.
I finally got P.O.'d enough to uninstall NWN2 and MoTB, but it always bothered me that I didn't finish Betrayer. Once I handed The Witcher over to Mrs. TQ (she did after all nurse me through nine months of
chemotherapy) it seemed the time was right to go back and finish what I started.

Funny thing is, since I re-installed NWN2 then MoTB immediately after it seems that my party members have gotten a lot smarter, especially the spellcasters.

Still dreading NWN2's endgame, though. Hardest thing I've ever played.

[WhiteEclipse]

Originally Posted by TQ

Funny thing is, since I re-installed NWN2 then MoTB immediately after it seems that my party members have gotten a lot smarter, especially the spellcasters.

Still dreading NWN2's endgame, though. Hardest thing I've ever played.

They did update the spellcasting AI. Also, make sure you craft an item with high spell resistance and buy heal potions during the course of the game - helps alot.

To traveler, I did do the fighter's stronghold. It has that little secret that I missed at first. I went online because I realized that had to be something a little more - I heard there was another area, then I searched and searched until I found it.

Having the sparring partner is nice. Stupidly, there are some chests that respawn - arrgh, if I leave something in my castle, I don't want it to disappear. I think the wizard's tower is actuall more useful as it has lots of non-respawning chests. Each one keeps a different category of items for me.

[TQ]

It would be ideal if I could take some existing armor - such as my trusty Red Dragon armor - and add additional protections to it.

Well, well...here's an interesting bit of news:

Weapons and Armor (including shields) can be enchanted with multiple effects. This means that you can use an already enchanted item (including magical items found throughout the game) as the base item and and add further enchantments to it. There are some restrictions that are important to remember.

* All Weapons and Armor (including shields and clothes) can have a maximum of 3 Magical Enhancements, including Base Bonus. This includes ranged weapons such as Arrows/Darts/Bolts/etc.
* Some exotic materials have inherent abilities that will take up an Enchantment slot. Examples: Adamantine's Damage Reduction for armor counts as one enchantment.
* Duplicate enchantments do not stack. e.g. If you use a Longsword +2 in the Basic +3 recipe, you will end up with a Longsword +3, NOT a Longsword +5.
* Filling all 3 enchantment slots (including any enhancements from exotic materials) will prevent you from upgrading any earlier existing enchantments, so upgrade the existing enchantments first before adding new ones.

[traveler]

Originally Posted by WhiteEclipse

[snip]

To traveler, I did do the fighter's stronghold. It has that little secret that I missed at first. I went online because I realized that had to be something a little more - I heard there was another area, then I searched and searched until I found it.

Having the sparring partner is nice. Stupidly, there are some chests that respawn - arrgh, if I leave something in my castle, I don't want it to disappear. I think the wizard's tower is actuall more useful as it has lots of non-respawning chests. Each one keeps a different category of items for me.

Did Bethesda fix that bug that was in the Fighters Stronghold? The one that screwed up all and everywhere of Oblivion?

[polonyc2]

started up a new Oblivion game!!

Breton/Mage...this time I'm not concentrating on the main quest right away and am focusing more on doing all the side quests

I finished Kvatch and have returned to Weynon Priory...I am using Martin and Jauffre to help me with some side quests before taking them over to Cloud Top...they are very useful during tough battles as they can never be killed and they only get knocked unconscious for a little bit...very helpful during a tight spot!

I am currently trying to finish the Ayelid statue quest from Umbacano where you need to retrieve 10 statues for him...I currently have 9

Shivering Isles has also been sitting on my desk for a long time...I never installed it so I am planning on doing so after finishing my current Oblivion game

[TQ]

I started a new game last month using Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul mod, which is amazing.
It's the most fun I've ever had with Oblivion. I recommend it highly and over Francesco's mod, the "competing" Oblivion overhaul mod. Francesco's was fun but I frequently had missing texture and mesh issues with it, plus it's not as refined as the OOO mod in that it's not tested by the modder for compatibility. Obscuro also includes many other wonderful user mods within his main overhaul, all tested to work flawlessly with OOO. It's really a wonder.

I'm also running the exquisitely beautiful Clocks of Cyrodill mod, the Midas Spells mod and The Lost Spires, which ads a new guild, the Archaeologists. It's a bit of an Indiana Jones take on the game.
I'm also moving very slowly on the main quest, which for me was always the least interesting part of the game.

Funny how I have Crysis and Half Life 2: Episode 2 and haven't touched them because Oblivion/OOO is just more interesting to me.

[TQ]

I just found this little GameSpy quote about the OOO mod, which won their 2006 Mod of The Year:

" Playing Oblivion before and after installing OOO is a night-and-day experience."

[traveler]

Originally Posted by TQ

I just found this little GameSpy quote about the OOO mod, which won their 2006 Mod of The Year:

" Playing Oblivion before and after installing OOO is a night-and-day experience."

I'll have to give it a try when I get back to Oblivion.

[TQ]

I started the OOO game as a Bosmer Stealth Mage/Marksman and have found it to be incredibly challenging and satisfying.
Head over here to read all about it...

[polonyc2]

nice find BBQ!

[zapionics<alt>]

Originally Posted by TQ

I started a new game last month using Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul mod, which is amazing.
It's the most fun I've ever had with Oblivion. I recommend it highly and over Francesco's mod, the "competing" Oblivion overhaul mod. Francesco's was fun but I frequently had missing texture and mesh issues with it, plus it's not as refined as the OOO mod in that it's not tested by the modder for compatibility. Obscuro also includes many other wonderful user mods within his main overhaul, all tested to work flawlessly with OOO. It's really a wonder.

I'm also running the exquisitely beautiful Clocks of Cyrodill mod, the Midas Spells mod and The Lost Spires, which ads a new guild, the Archaeologists. It's a bit of an Indiana Jones take on the game.
I'm also moving very slowly on the main quest, which for me was always the least interesting part of the game.

Funny how I have Crysis and Half Life 2: Episode 2 and haven't touched them because Oblivion/OOO is just more interesting to me.

TQ can you tell us a bit about the mod? I think it changes the leveling system? Does it fix it? or do you end up a superman at level 6 with no challenge? Any problems with the mod? I'm thinking of replaying the game if the leveling is working. Does it change the story/plot or main quest in anyway?

[zapionics<alt>]

Thanks for the link TQ, had a look and this mod looks great! The caps on leveling are just what the game needed.
So long as it doesnt change the story or main quest then I'm happy and will give it a go.

[TQ]

I'll assume you've followed the link and read a bit about it, but to answer your question: no changes to the main quest or the story. Just additions to make the game more immersing and challenging.

OOO is just astounding.

I'm using it with these additional user mods:
Bedrolls-6430
Natural Environments-2536
Ayleid Coins
Midas Magic Spells of Aurum
Elven Map Redux
SaddleBag
Clocks of Cyrodiil
The Lost Spires
Dark Green Glass Armor
Tamriel's Glittering Geology
Golden Arrow Archery Shop
Vanilla Oblivion Skill Rates
BT Mod

I chose to allow the "Vanilla Oblivion Skill Rates" to override the slower rates that are the default of OOO because I wanted to level up fairly quickly. That's the only thing I went with that altered OOO from its intent.

Oh, I also use the Oblivion Mod Manager which gives me the option to load the mods in the order I choose. Apparently, the load order is important to the major mods to insure stability and compatibility.

The game is now as perfect as is humanly possible...at least to what I want it to be. And isn't it amazing that one can tweak gameplay to this extent?

[traveler]

What's this I've heard? They put securom on the latest release of Oblivion?