Overwhelmed by Oblivion

[endtherapture]

So, I, like many others got Oblivion in the Steam sale yesterday for a fiver.

I've installed a load of mods to the game so it looks great, and I balanced out the levelling with the Francesco mod (the OOO mod made the game FAR TOO HARD for an Elder Scrolls newbie like me).

I've done the first Oblivion gate and picked up Martin and I don't know what to do next. My journal is full of quests but I don't know which are easy and which are hard and I don't wanna get my arse kicked. So what quests should I do, what towns should I go to etc..

Just give us Oblivion n00bs some pointers!!

 

[OniaPL]

Start the game, choose either between mage or some other class. Play two hours. If you did not pick mage, restart the game and pick mage. If you did, be happy and keep on playing.

 

[endtherapture]

Start the game, choose either between mage or some other class. Play two hours. If you did not pick mage, restart the game and pick mage. If you did, be happy and keep on playing.

Playing as some Breton Spellsword thing.

 

[tobi the good boy]

So, I, like many others got Oblivion in the Steam sale yesterday for a fiver.

I've installed a load of mods to the game so it looks great, and I balanced out the levelling with the Francesco mod (the OOO mod made the game FAR TOO HARD for an Elder Scrolls newbie like me).

I've done the first Oblivion gate and picked up Martin and I don't know what to do next. My journal is full of quests but I don't know which are easy and which are hard and I don't wanna get my arse kicked. So what quests should I do, what towns should I go to etc..

Just give us Oblivion n00bs some pointers!!

If you're a morally bankrupt fellow like myself, The Dark Brotherhood will be one of the most enjoyable questlines you could ever do. The Thieves Guild in Oblivion is by far some of the most fun shit you can do in the game and it's very Robbin hood like so even good fellows can do it. Daedric quests are always interesting and if you have the Shivering Ilse's you could do that but I think that's more end game stuff.

 

[SidingWithTheEnemy]

Uhm, try moving the difficulty slider just a tad left. I don't know Francesco's mod, but that helped me when I was losing against a mudcrab. ;-)
Easy quests?
Fight in the Arena (but save beforehand, some might find differnt fights difficult)
The initial guild quest are always easy if I remember correctly. The Brotherhood quests are a must (even for righteous players) because they are the most hilarious questline I experienced thus far. If you like Cthulhu you should check out Hackdirt as well

 

[OniaPL]

Also, you may want to find a character build guide. It is possible to build yourself into a corner in Oblivion, and it can severely impact your experience when you find yourself dying constantly.

 

[TheKruzdawg]

If you find any of the skill trainers scattered throughout the game, make sure you train the maximum 5 times per level before you level up. It will really help you level up difficult skills and make the most of out each level up.

 

[Fbuh]

IT really depends on what type of character you like to play. Oblivion is fun becasue you can focus on levelling your major skills first, and then proceed to become the best at everythign alse too. I usually play a theif/assassin type who secializes in stealth and destruction/illusion magic, so I tend to start out witht eh theives guild and then the dark brotherhood. You'll get oodles of awesome magic items in the process.

Closing Oblivion gates is also good becasue of the sigil stones you get for closing the portals, as well as the loot picked up along the way. However, for the best loot, explore some caves. FOr some reason, caves seem to always have the best stuff.

There's also this trick a couple of friends of mine discovered. If you have he ability to create your own spells, make a spell that increases Luck 100% for just a couple of seconds, and then cast it before you open a chest or enter an area. THe results are well worht it.

 

[LaughingAtlas]

1. Reach level 10.
2. Look up the location of Nocturnal's shrine.
3. Complete the quest and recieve skeleton key.
4. Never be denied entry (except by those inexplicable key-only-fuck-you locks) again.
5. ???
6. Profit.

As someone else said, the Dark Brotherhood missions are good fun for a stealth character (made easeir with the skeleton key) and give better rewards than most any other quest line, if memory serves.
Also, if you like punching things and stick to hand-to-hand, you can end up fucking everyone's shit with your quick, staggering jabs. Punch top-level daedra to death, disregard weapons that have to be repaired and take up inventory space.
If I'm not mistaken, guards are 100% impossible to pickpocket, I tried with 138 sneak skill and got a "Stop right there, criminal!"
Jump a lot to level acrobatics. Mostly because it's fun (opinion) to go bounding through the wild.

That's all I can remember, good luck!

 

[zehydra]

First off, try playing the game WITHOUT mods first. After that, you can flavour it however you like.

As for getting your ass handed to ya, that just means you either need to increase your skills some more or turn down the difficulty.[/quote

First off, try playing the game WITHOUT mods first. After that, you can flavour it however you like.

As for getting your ass handed to ya, that just means you either need to increase your skills some more or turn down the difficulty.

Don't do it. Oblivion must have mods in order to be considered even remotely playable.

You will need some level scaling abolisher and some mod adding extra items to the levelled lists (to offset fucking lack of diversity) - many mods combine both functionalities.

You will need some combat overhaul, like Deadly Reflex, because combat in vanilla is atrocious.

You will need a mod to somehow handle the fact that unique quest rewards are scaled to your level.

Lastly, you will need any and all unofficial patches you can get your hands on.

One more thing - you need to remember to click through dialogues as fast as possible - you have a quest compass to show you where to go, a journal and popups to tell you what to do. Any exposure to oblivious dialogues will result in permanent brain damage .

Satisfying these requirements, oblivious may be a decent mindless slaughter simulator for those days when you feel angry and need to vent, but too drained to play anything decent.

Also, try to stay in SI, rather than Cyrodiil, at least it's visually interesting and somewhat non-generic.

"Don't do it. Oblivion must have mods in order to be considered even remotely playable."

That is absurd. Vanilla Oblivion is one of my favorite games.

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

1. Eject the disc.
2. Go out and buy Skyrim.
3. ???
4. Profit!

Seriously though, never level up in Oblivion unless you have to (for instance, to join the Dark Brotherhood) because the level scaling will screw you over if you leveled in even one non-combat skill.

That brings me to my second point. Join the Dark Brotherhood. Now. Their quest line is the best in the game and even better than their quests in Skyrim.

My third point is an extension of the second point. To join the Dark Brotherhood, just kill a citizen and then sleep in a 'secure' location (for instance, one of those random bandit camps out in the wilderness).

 

[moxretroero]

If you don't know where to go next, make a cycle of the towns. If you like it, stick around and find a few side quests. If not, head to the next town. Another good option is to choose a guild quest line. One of the best things about Oblivion is that, since enemy difficulties all scale, you can really do anything in whatever order you want (unless you install a mod like OOO, which makes difficulties essentially static). Just choose something that sounds fun and keep going.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Start the game, choose either between mage or some other class. Play two hours. If you did not pick mage, restart the game and pick mage. If you did, be happy and keep on playing.

Also, you may want to find a character build guide. It is possible to build yourself into a corner in Oblivion, and it can severely impact your experience when you find yourself dying constantly.

^This man speaks the truth. An alternative to managing your leveling is to get a mod that fixes Oblivion's leveling problems, but you definitely want to be doing something about the situation.

Better yet, play a modded Morrowind

Also this.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Oblivion is great by itself, dont listen to all the naysayers, although from what ive seen there are two mods that you need, a mod to fix combat and a mod to fix level scaling, I play on the console and while my character is fairly strong, combat is boring as shit, and i just cant beat certain quests due to the enemies becoming walking gods, all because i decided to work on my Alchemy and Merchantile for a bit

 

[masticina]

Whatever you desire

I mean it whatever you desire. One thing I suggest is to buy a house if you haven't gotten a crib yet. Storage you see for all the shiny magical items you steal.

You can put hours in improving your character different ways. For instance I have a character with 100 sneak.. seriously 100 sneak. She can crawl up to you and you wouldn't notice it. Until a deadric long sword cuts you in half [oooh sneak multiplier bonus]

I have to balance her out though as in, well morality points. See good deeds give you good karma, good points. And bad things like killing people or stealing for the thiefsguild.. bad points. If you have more bad then go you are in trouble! Because you lose the ability to heal yourself at churches. Not to mention .. people kinda are not so nice to you.

So to balance such out I now am playing a good person. Leaving some thiefing/murdering quests behind for later and now I am an upstanding member of the mages guild you see. And soon a warrior for the fighters guild.

So much to do so much to learn

I do disagree with the second poster, seriously mage... mage.. sneaky thiefs are kewl to. I can sneak behind his mage and whack him even before he knew I was there *chuckle*

I agree though that magic is kewl and useful. As thief it is an useful side ability

Really just play and enjoy whatever you play, warrior, thief, mage.. play and learn.

Oh and one of the bigger tips ever, expect your first character indeed to end up being wrong. As in that you have to deal with enemies your level but because you leveled certain skills that are weak against said enemies.. ouch you are in trouble. Then you make a new character..

I find focussing helps, again I did go the sneaky thief/assassin route. But I do get it if someone feels happier if casting a demon and then using spells.. sure! As long as you keep yourself from wanting to do everything! My thief can do magic but has a very limited amount of mana... But again enchanted bows + sneak attack multipliers help me far

Oh yeah the difficulty slider, yeah I suggest to move it a little to the left. The game has a tendency to be slightly to moronic hard for its own good. Just a slight move to the left solves that.

 

[Eventidal]

Protip: Use the difficulty slider if it's too hard!

 

[NightHawk21]

Azura's star. This is probably one of the single most useful items in the game. Also I recommend you join the Arena and do Gaiden's quest. That should lead you right into the Dark Brotherhood guild.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

I never played Oblivion the "proper" way because I found it much more fun to fuck around with cheats and mods. In fact, I cannot imagine how someone could enjoy actually playing through the game without any mods or cheats. Anyways, just do the main quest and if you can't stomach that then do what I did.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Oblivion is great by itself, dont listen to all the naysayers, although from what ive seen there are two mods that you need, a mod to fix combat and a mod to fix level scaling, I play on the console and while my character is fairly strong, combat is boring as shit, and i just cant beat certain quests due to the enemies becoming walking gods, all because i decided to work on my Alchemy and Merchantile for a bit

Combat can't be 'fixed', due to the engine. It's gonna be shitty regardless.

DEF need a mod to fix the enemies and loot scaling to your level though.

Apparently Deadly reflexes makes it a tiny bit less shitty, which would be good enough for me

 

[Irridium]

Oblivion is great by itself, dont listen to all the naysayers, although from what ive seen there are two mods that you need, a mod to fix combat and a mod to fix level scaling, I play on the console and while my character is fairly strong, combat is boring as shit, and i just cant beat certain quests due to the enemies becoming walking gods, all because i decided to work on my Alchemy and Merchantile for a bit

Combat can't be 'fixed', due to the engine. It's gonna be shitty regardless.

DEF need a mod to fix the enemies and loot scaling to your level though.

Though you can get mods that make it more interesting.

Deadly Reflex and Unnecessary Violence come to mind for this.