So, I just started playing Oblivion....

[Kelz0r]

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but join the fighters guild or the mages guild early on. You don't have to do anything for them, though I do recommend their quests. Basically, you get a free bed out of the deal.

Also, this probably varies from player to player, but I think most people don't just focus on the main quest in Oblivion. By all means, you should check it out, but the world has so much more to offer than that. Explore! Do side quests! Raid forts and ruins.

And check out the Dark Brotherhood.

 

[Easton Dark]

some creatures disappear(which actually breaks a few quests)

Woah really? I didn't know the leveling system breaks quests... never experienced that myself, anyway.

 

[Blubberburg]

i remember going into everybodys gardens stealing all their plants and using alchemy to make a pile of terrible potions. id then sell them and have tons of money.

Theres a bunch of sidequests you get from finding some statues somewhere out in the game and the rewards are awesome super items (like an indestructible lockpick that increases your lockpicking by heaps)

 

[martyrdrebel27]

Other than that, find an isolated farm or something and murder its occupant. Then go to sleep and have fun for days.

I hate how a game that constantly refers to you as a chosen hero, allows you to act like a constant sick creep.

This is one thing I don't understand about wRPGs. Sure, jRPGs don't allow you to be a super villainous jerk. But that's a kind of lame choice to begin with. And kind of dumbfounding when the game says "you're the hero". In a world like Disgaea, it kind of makes sense to have moral choices, because you're not exactly given a role of saving everything and being a good hero. You're just a demon who, may or may not have an inner heart and goodness like Flonne thinks.

But a hero who kills people at random? Not my idea of a hero.

Then again, I'm also a person who likes acting moral in games to begin with. So I wouldn't take the immoral choices even if given them, so they're a useless option to me.

you're forgetting a key fact... you start the game off in prison. presumably for life:

Valen Dreth: "You're going to die here."

but the gods had chosen you to save the world from an evil, that doesn't necessarily dictate how you go about it. Hero carries a different connation. I mean (hello Mr. Godwin...) even Hitler was a hero to some people.

How you get to the end of the path isn't important, just that you fulfill the god's wishes at the end of that path. (which i'm remembering now isn't entirely true because if you have a warrant out, you can't pray at wayshrines. apparently the gods don't care if you do wrong, just if you get busted.)

EDIT: i forgot to point out my original point, you start off in jail, so you obviously weren't an upstanding citizen to begin with.

 

[ultrachicken]

Other than that, find an isolated farm or something and murder its occupant. Then go to sleep and have fun for days.

I hate how a game that constantly refers to you as a chosen hero, allows you to act like a constant sick creep.

This is one thing I don't understand about wRPGs. Sure, jRPGs don't allow you to be a super villainous jerk. But that's a kind of lame choice to begin with. And kind of dumbfounding when the game says "you're the hero". In a world like Disgaea, it kind of makes sense to have moral choices, because you're not exactly given a role of saving everything and being a good hero. You're just a demon who, may or may not have an inner heart and goodness like Flonne thinks.

But a hero who kills people at random? Not my idea of a hero.

Then again, I'm also a person who likes acting moral in games to begin with. So I wouldn't take the immoral choices even if given them, so they're a useless option to me.

Don't worry, you're not the only one. Playing through Mass Effect/Dragon Age, I always feel bad if I ever take the "jackass" options during dialogue/missions. I'm not even sure why, because when I do pick them I usually find them hilarious. It just makes it feel a bit more realistic and immersive to me that these people would be so willing to help the actual nice guy who's supposed to be the hero of the galaxy, rather than the guy who blows people's heads off if they look at him funny.

But you're not the chosen hero. You're just an able-bodied warrior who gets sucked into the world's mess. All of the titles and prophecies and whatnot are directed towards a specific other character, and you're effectively his helper.

 

[thelastmccabe]

Make sure you understand the leveling system or that you are willing to turn down the difficulty slider. The leveling system is totally broken and your character will get weaker as you level unless you really pay attention to what you are doing. You can fix this by making the game easier with the difficulty slider, but some people (like me) find that to be immersion breaking.

Also, I'd probably stay away from the story quests for a while because going very far into the quest line causes ugly oblivion gates to spawn and mess up some of the pretty landscape.

I got pretty annoyed with the game because of the leveling, but I might try it out again soon and just turn down the difficulty slider or start a new game.

 

[electronicgoat]

Oblivion's writing is just so, so bad. Eventually I couldn't play it because my laptop went to shit, but I was kind of let down by my own incompetence in that I kept trying to steal and murder people but it never went down quite right.

 

[Nexus4]

He has already bought it for Xbox, so I don't see why people are still telling him to get it on PC. Anyway, be sure to pick up Umbra from Calcisomethings Vile's shrine quest.

 

[spartan231490]

I hate to break it to you, but you already made the biggest mistake- if at all possible, you should get Oblivion on PC. Mods are fantastic. I got a freakin' Keyblade.

All I can recommend is to just explore, explore, explore.

And get the unbreakable lockpick (I forget what it's called, but I know it's a Daedric artifact) ASAP. I think you need to be level 10 or 15 to get it.

Shutting down at least a few Oblivion gates before beating the main storyline is advisable too. Good free enchantments.

It's called the skeleton key.

Also, I have oblivion for the 360, and I love it. I wouldn't trade it for pc ever, I love my controller, and hate keyboard/mouse. You haven't made some game-breaking mistake by not getting it for pc, fact is the mods are fun, but the normal experience is great too.

OT: My big peice of advice, look at the stats for dif races and genders online, it'll help you a lot, the descriptions aren't really enough.

Also, do alchemy, do alchemy, do alchemy. The restore health potions will save your life, the damage health poisons will save your life, the feather potions will make it easier to carry loot, and the other potions will make you money. You can go to an alchemy shop, buy ingredients, and then make potions and sell them for a profit. It's awesome.

Armoror is a good skill to use too, it really saves you money. Also, neither of these skills need to be class skills, you use them enough that they will probably be the first to max out even if they aren't (Unless you are a pure mage)

 

[Ryotknife]

bows tend to do well in the begining but do not scale well.

magic is kinda the opposite. it is monstrous towards end game, and kinda lame in the beginning.

Alchemy is a great skill and easy to level.

Food is usually the best thing to steal from houses....sadly.

be careful about joining the Thieves guild and the magic guild at the same time, there can be some conflict between the two that will cause endless annoyance unless you get creative. Specifically, one quest where you need to steal/kill from a mage but doing so gets you booted from the mages guild.

 

[Kakashi on crack]

-snip-

Complete Nocturnal's quest. They're somewhere on that road between Cheydinhal and Leyawin (near Black Marsh)

I'd just suggest that if you are a fighting or sneak-based build, get a silver/enchanted weapon for fighting ghosts. If you're a mage, join the mages guild, and definetly join the Arena for some early-on profits/decent armor.


Also, I would suggest buying Morrowind as it is 10 times better than Oblivion in every single way. (except graphics...)

 

[Kakashi on crack]

Looks like I am the only one who thought lockpicking was an easy to master challenge

I actually found the lockpicking minigame extremely easy, and fun... Up until my parents decided to get rid of the plasma (which I managed to convince them to move up into my room) and replaced it with an LCD that has a half-a-second lag... Now I can never complete the lockpicking minigame without breaking at least 10 lockpicks... *loves skeleton key now*

 

[Instant K4rma]

Explore. Go everywhere. There's just so much to find, and I've had so much fun finding it all over the past 5 years.

I'd also recommend the two big DLC, being Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles. Both really solid expansions. Sheogorath remains one of my all time favorite video game characters to this day.

11/11/11 will be a bittersweet day for me. Oblivion, you will be missed.

 

[Ruedyn]

If you don't have horse armor DLC, GET IT. It adds so much to the game, like upgrading horses you won't use because shadowmere is immortal.

 

[Ryotknife]

If you don't have horse armor DLC, GET IT. It adds so much to the game, like upgrading horses you won't use because shadowmere is immortal.

its a trap!

(horses for the most part are useless even with that DLC, most characters can run faster than horses can travel.)

 

[Vhite]

Don't bother leveling up. Besides opening up few quests and more fancy looking armor it is pointless. Also exploring is 99% unrewarding because you will be finding same old crap. OOO mod could fix both.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

My tip would be to play Morrowind instead, I could never bring myself to finish Oblivion. Far too dull.

 

[Lyri]

Ignore everyone's suggestions.

Pick a direction and run in it. Get distracted by whatever comes in your path. Explore. Get lost in the wilderness. Get a bounty on your head. Do whatever the hell you want.

Things like this:

You'll be granted over 100% - meaning you can now go anywhere, do anything and no one will even blink.

Completely break the game from the get go. While that can be funny for a while or on repeated play throughs, it tends to dull it on the first time.

Strap on a blindfold and do whatever appeals to you. Once you get a dozen or so hours under your belt, then come back and ask people what's cool to do.

This is the post you should take into account.

Ignore everything else, completely and utterly. The joy of the Elder scrolls series is that first play through where you don't know what the hell you're doing and what's going on.
Nothing screams fun like avenues to explore.

Try to forget everything you read in this thread about items and super powered stuff like enchanted armour.
Believe me you can get it later, if you rush it now you'll just kill the fun. I played Morrowind for years and none of my play throughs ever matched my first run through. Not knowing is the best part.
Run with it, literally.

 

[bkrockwell]

I started playing it on PC, thinking I'd give it a playthrough before Skyrim comes out. But to be honest, I find the game is an eyesore even on the highest settings - so much that I've been very reluctant to play it. I know it's my fault for playing it years ago, but it's still what's removing a lot of my incentive to play the game.

 

[Rawne1980]

Other than that, find an isolated farm or something and murder its occupant. Then go to sleep and have fun for days.

I hate how a game that constantly refers to you as a chosen hero, allows you to act like a constant sick creep.

You seem to have missed the point of the TES games.

You are not a hero. You just do things people consider heroic.

You are a criminal that happens to have a very varied destiny.

Ignore everyone's suggestions.

Pick a direction and run in it. Get distracted by whatever comes in your path. Explore. Get lost in the wilderness. Get a bounty on your head. Do whatever the hell you want.

And this guy is 100% correct.

There is no *right* way to play Oblivion. The first time playing it is always the best and knowing where the best items are spoils the exploration a little bit.

All I will say is visit a few cities. They all have side quests and some of them are good fun.

I won't bang on about the PC version (although thats the one I have) mainly due to playing it without mods for the first time allows for a better experience anyway so it doesn't matter which version you have.

Just run free and explore, thats the whole point of the game. You have the freedom and you have a pretty decent sized map, go look around it.