I reinstalled this the other day so I could see if this time I might finally sink into the game like I normally do with CRPGs. No such luck – after finishing the initial area I’m wandering aimlessly around the Imperial City with no idea what to do or where to go. I know that the open ended approach is part of the appeal of the game, but I remember more nudging along in Morrowind (which I at least completed). Maybe it’s just not meant to be.
Joining a guild should give you some direction and some quests to do, right?
kill a random person then do the dark brotherhood questline?
More nudging in Morrowind? Heck, I thought Morrowind had less direction. I never completed the main quest in Morrowind because I could never keep track of what to do next.
You should have an initial quest to deliver the amulet to Jauffre, I think. Other than that just start talking to people to get quests. Or, make up your own little story and do stuff. Or, clear out some dungeons. Explore the wilderness. Yes, it’s a big open world but there is lots to see.
Same thing for me. Trying to find I can’t remember what NPC in a town where every house was alike totally killed any interest in Morrowind for me.
In Oblivion at least you always have the main quest in your journal, the compass, etc. Hell, people actually complained you were taken too much by the hand in the game.
I spent a lot of time in Oblivion stealing horses, tracking down a unicorn, and gathering herbs.
Sort of on topic, since it relates to the reason I never even bought Oblivion:
Are there any patches that fix the leveling system?
See, I was pretty excited for the game, but I didn’t plan to buy it when it first came out since I was finishing other games at the time. My brother bought it, and he started telling me about all the bullshit you have to do as far as like not picking the skills you actually will use for your character as primary skills so you can control your leveling and stat growth optimally and it completely killed my interest in the game.
I find Oblivion (and Morrowind) a little too open-ended for my tastes. Like Yahtzee, I enjoy being ordered around, preferably by a woman’s voice with the right mix of sultry disdain.
Yes. Check out POOP.
Yeah, there are three things, bascially, wigglestick.
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If playing with mods, as mentioned above there are shittons of mods that play with the leveling system or turn it off.
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If playing unmodded, turn down the difficulty slider slightly (just a small notch at a time) if things too hard for you.
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Don’t worry about it, because unless you are a serious min/maxer, you probably won’t even notice it. You might be irked that some bandit in the wilderness has glass armor on when you are high level, but it’s not game breaking or anything, it’s a design decision to make the game challenging throughout.
Morrowind is a great game, but I never would’ve finished it without the guide. Oblivion does a much better job showing you the way from quest to quest, if that’s what you want.
I’m a bit of a min/maxer, but not entirely. My problem was at some certain level, I was very powerful summoning, destroying things with ease… in 5 levels, I was very weak and had trouble just getting around outside without dying… then I stopped playing.
It’s just annoying to be able to go from very strong to very weak in spite of not really changing your style of playing (instead just accepting different types of quests which level a more useless primary skill). At that point you realize you have to min-max just to stay current, and the game becomes a chore.
Here’s a quote from a power-leveling guide on GameFAQs which exemplifies the things I find ridiculous about this game’s leveling system:
This is so counter-intuitive that it gives me a headache.
Ok the game is 2 years old and we’re still debating the level scaling ?
This.
The DB questline is the best written line in the game.
I don’t think there’s any debate, here. I’m simply expressing my opinion about how stupid the level scaling is, which is what prevented me from buying the game; this is merely background for my question as to the existence of a fan patch that adjusts it. If there’s a good one, I may buy the game, because I have been wanting to experience the world and the story.
Wow, we can debate on whether min-maxing like that is a good idea in the first place, but it amazes me that this quote is also completely untrue. One of my old roommates was a min-maxer, and he leveled up his sneak skill to 75 or something in the tutorial, and since the tutorial takes place before they give you major and minor skills, it didn’t affect his level at all. So in essence, telling people to not level up skills they want to use during the tutorial is… not good advice.
I don’t know, people have really weird ideas about what makes an enjoyable game. El Guapo had a good summary of the different ways of dealing with this. I fall into category 3: I just created a character who chose what he wanted to use the most as major skills, and then proceeded to use them. The game got tougher at times, and then much easier. I don’t see what staying low level would have accomplished that would add to my enjoyment of the game in any way. Why should I min-max in a way to stay low level just for the sake of making the game easier for myself? The game gets to be too easy in the higher levels anyway, I don’t see why I should add to the problem by making a character who becomes ultra-powerful at low level and avoids leveling up. That’s so bizarre to me.
You seem to be taking at face-value that your friend’s way of playing the game makes it more enjoyable, or the way these GameFaqs people are playing is the most enjoyable. But I think that’s a faulty assumption. I personally think the most enjoyable way of playing the game is just to pick the skills you think will help you the most, and then use those skills. It’s intuitive, and it works for most skills in the game (but obviously there are exceptions).
I also just played the dark brotherhood quest and explored the world looking at the amazing scenery.
This took about 40 hours and I am happy that I got my money’s worth.
Ok, I lie. I did this and then started a new game intending to finish the storyline but only managed about ten hours of this strategy before getting bored.
Well put. Or, more easily put, the people who try to break any game will certainly break it. The more open ended that game is, the easier this becomes.
Absolutely. I cannot recommend this enough. On of the best quest lines I have played in an RPG.