Weird. I thought the scaling system was going to suck at first. But when I started leveling up, I was still able to be almost like a god because of enchantments. I think that's the key: enchantments. I beat the Arena quest with ease, so now I get to face up to 3 minotaurs, which I thought would actually be a challenge, and though it kind of was at first, now I can defeat them with ease. The key I think to being godlike is enchantments. I did a Daedric Shrine quest and got the Goldbrand, and I'm easily taking out people left and right. Also, I think Alchemy helps a ton. I have about 100 Restore Health potions that I always keep on me that restore my health like 30 points a second for 30 seconds. So, if I ever get in trouble, I just down a few of those and I'm temporarily invincible.

I find the scaling system to not be nearly as bad as I thought it would be. And I even started out with a preset class as an assassin.

The leveling system was hurting me for a bit because I had alchemy as a major skill. I wanted my alchemy high so I made a ton of potions and went up several levels without really advancing my combat skills. This was back at around levels 6-10 and I was getting pwned a lot. I rarely got killed but battles were tough. I went back to lots of combat (you can raise combat skills really fast in the arena) and did my best to raise only blade and heavy armor for a while, while also getting the +5 modifiers to boost stats as quick as possible. By about level 13 I was able to hold my own pretty well and by level 18 I was easily taking people out.

Maybe it's just the game that the most difficult part is around levels 7-12. I'm now at level 30 with a full deadric set, deadric longsword and deadric bow. The only time I start hurting is when I face multiple liches (their spells can do major damage)

I have like no gold at all though because I hoard all the equipment I get. I have like 30 sets of deadric armor and since I've been hunting necromancers I have buttloads of deadric maces.

Can you ever buy glass or deadric arrows? I can't ever find them. I'm stuck using elven arrows but deadric arrows would kick ass.

Has anyone noticed that summoned creatures generally suck ass? I was fighting the three minotaur lords in the arena so I summoned a lich. He mostly stood around while I was kicking their asses so I summoned an Xivali. He did better but didn't help much.

I think that's right. I remember first starting the main quest a little after level 7 and it was really tough. I didn't think I'd get through it without cheating. Thinking back on it, I'm not sure how I actually got through it (but I did it without cheating!).

Now I have a full set of Glass Armor (I don't use the ugly helmet though) and a great weapon. I hardly ever have trouble with enemies, including liches and they were hard as hell at first. That's probably because of all my resistance to magic enchantments.

I don't know if you can buy Daedric arrows and Glass arrows or not. I never use Daedric arrows though because they are too heavy. Glass arrows are great but unnecessary since I use poisen/fire/shock/whatever potions that do most of the damage. I just use elven arrows with poison on them mostly.

As for summoning, I think that would be an awesome skill but I'm role playing as an assassin. Right now I use summoning to increase my Marksman skill, but it's good for raising all kinds of other skills. Also, it would be great for soul trapping, especially if you had the skill and enough magicka to summon a grand soul, such as the Xivilai.

By the time you're needing to worry about grand souls and major weapon recharges, you should be rolling in enough phat lewt to pay for the Mages Guild to recharge all your stuff. As was said before - it's really only human (or equivelant) opponents that level up alongside you. Everything else is nice and stable, until the rats are replaced with mountain lions. Once you hit level 10 you're through probably the hardest part of the game. What's so bad about messing with the difficulty, though? Bethesda balanced the game to appeal to the average gamer. As there's no such thing and everyone varies from the perceived norm, mess with it all you like. It's your game, there's no scoreboard.

No. Not true. I was always having to recharge while I was in the oblivion gate, so I was always capturing soul gems. My enchanted weapon would be out by the time I killed like 5 people or so, which would mean wait until I get back to a mages guild or recharge with a grand soul. That's just part of the pattern for me; capturing soul gems as I slay enemies. I never use a mages guild, I think it's a huge waste of gold.

I got Azura's star and enchanted my bow with soultrap. That takes care of the souls.

What level are you at, my man? I get some 10k worth of loot from each gate I go into, easily. Most of my enchanted weapons have 40-60 charges in them. Even spending the full amount to charge them every time has yet to make a dent in my income. Up at 100k and growing!

Well, it would be growing. Some lowlifed fuckfaced crack whore broke into my house today and took my 360. Oblivion disk inside. Hard drive gone. Gamecube and PS2 will probably never be seen again.

I'm depressed.

Am I the only person who doesn't bother recharging his weapons? I just use it as long as it is the highest damage weapon I have, then sell it if something with more damage comes along. I haven't found any enchantment particularly worth keeping over most others. Then again, I do not create my own enchantment, so maybe that's it.

That sucks hulk, find that fucker and string 'em up!

I'm a pretty high level. Level 38 I think. It's been awhile since I last played. I'm actually not sure what the charge on my Goldbrand is. I know it's 3000, but I'm not sure how many uses. But it needs recharged while I'm out there. And it has nothing to do with making a dent in my income. I have over 100k and I own 3 houses. I just choose not to go to the mages guild. Azura's Star is awesome, that's what I use for all my recharging needs. Like I said, just part of the pattern for me. When I'm running low on charge, I capture a soul and use it to recharge. And you're probably about right, over 10k easily, depending on what you keep and what you sell. Actually, not sure, my mercantile isn't too high, so I get the shaft when it comes to that area.

Also, I have a whole bunch of grand soul gems with grand souls inside that I carry with me. This could be a glitch or could be weird feature of Azura's Star, but has anyone noticed that if you have no grand soul gems, but do carry Azura's Star, sometimes the Star creates a grand soul gem with a grand soul (or greater, whatever) inside, rather than actually trapping the soul in Azura's Star? This has happened to me many of times, giving me many grand soul gems.

Edit: by the way, that sucks about your 360, hope you catch the asshole.

I would recommend recharging weapons because it seems to make a significant difference. My weapon has extra 20 points of fire damage and I can definitely tell when it's charged and when it's not.

I used to use a different weapon. One with no charge. The Honorblade of Chorrol; I stole it from the Countess of Chorrol while she was sleeping after I retrieved it for her doing a quest. And although it is a good weapon because it takes no weight, does a lot of damage, etc, it sucks compared to my other weapon with the 20 point fire damage.

It says up the top helpfully when the charge runs out. I made a claymore with 40 fire damage for one second. Has 18 swings in it (charged with a grand soul gem) but it's buff. Drain health is a great thing to put on 'em, though. You can drain 100 points of health for next to nothing, even if you put the duration to 1 second it doesn't come back.

Drain health does come back... it's the "damage (skill, attribute, magicka, etc)" that don't come back and require either potions or praying at a church to restore.

With drain health at 100 though, I can see that it doesn't really matter.

Their maximum health is restored, yes. The current health, however, stays at the lower number unless they heal. It's mentioned in the manual, I believe.

Hmm... I'll have to try this out... if it's true, it seems like that may be an element of the game they forgot to balance... because drain health is extremely cheap...

Only because of the one-second duration. It's treated as a drain spell, and draining anything else for one second (except perhaps fatigue, as they'll drop to the ground IIRC) is pretty pointless.

Drain health is such a cheap shot, I love it.

I guess it could really backfire when fighting enemies with reflect, though, right?

Anyone else having crashes with the Beta patch?

IIRC, reflect only reflects spells and not weapon effects.

I just restarted with a pure fighter char (heavy armor, blade, marksman) who is not going to use any magic at all (getting items enchanted will be ok) and seeing how that goes. I am also going to make a pure mage character as well for when I feel like tossing some spells around.
It should be an interesting mix. I'm going to play the figher as a good character who helps and does good deeds etc, and the mage will be played as a fairly evil character, who will murder and steal and not take crap from anyone.
Should be fun!

My assassin (fighter/rogue/mage combo) just joined the dark brotherhood. So much for being good. :)

How do you play as a pure mage? Overall I find it cumbersome. Switching spells is never quick and spells just don't seem as powerfull as melee weapons.

For switching spells I have always just hotkeyed them.

Yea with hotkeys you can have 10 spells at your disposal.. really fast enough for anything you could be doing. And spells do MUCH more than melee, especially below about level 15...

So apparantly, increasing your attributes over 100 doesn't really do anything to help most skills. Also, increasing skills above 100 via enchantments doesn't do anything either. Fuck, I need to make new enchanted items.

Jack Thompson is now going after Oblivion:

http://www.gamepro.com/computer/pc/g...ws/54070.shtml

Bethesda needs to sue this asshole for anything they can. He's blatantly lying his ass off.

That guy....:( /shakes head

This game is fantabulous. There is definately some stuttering (especically on the horse), but nothing too outrageous.

I can't get anywhere in the Thief's Guild....I'm desperately loud and my lockpicking skills suck eggs. :)

I haven't done any of the thieves guild stuff yet. Haven't joined any guilds yet actually. I have to find the fighters guild. I want to start kicking some ass with my warrior. I think I am only going to do the dark brotherhood stuff with my mage. Not sure yet...

If you are looking for a cheap way to raise sneak, just find an empty room with people in the connecting room. Turn sneak on and walk in place in front of the door so nobody can get in. Leave the game running with the walk key stuck and come back in an hour or so. You won't believe how quickly it goes up!

That's probably what I'm going to have to do. :)

I spent most of the night attempting (and re-attempting....ARGHSHH!) the very first mission the Doyen gives you once you're in the guild.


Stupid, freakin' imperials....and their locked doors...

or you could just use console commands:

modpcskill "skillname" x

There is a deadric quest where the reward is an unbreakable lockpick. If you have one of those it doesn't matter how bad your security skill is, eventually you'll unlock it.

it also buffs your security skill by 40, and not having to worry about breaking lockpicks anymore is a godsend.

How you melee guys out there dealing with the big guys? I do fine toe to toe on most things, but the last dungeon I went to was full of Savage Trolls and Savage Ogres.. they hit for about 1/4 of my health .. the only way I managed to beat them was jumping in for one hit, dodging out before they swing. Is there any easier way to kill these fuckin things?

Level 13 with full orcish and a dwarven longsword..

Level 13 is right in the tough area. Harder enemies and just prior to getting some great weapons. The dwarven longsword isn't that great, try and find an elvish or better one and buff it up with a sigil stone if you can. As you're over level 12, you should be getting the best stones from the oblivion gates, so sprint through one of those if you have to.

Level 13-ish really sucked...

However, I picked a nice glass longsword and found the 'shield of unbreakable' soon after that and things picked up considerably.

As for the lockpicks....before I completed the first Thieves Guild mission, I couldn't buy lockpicks from Armand and I couldn't buy them from my fence for some reason, but now that I've got a few quests under my belt, I can buy them by the hundreds from either of my 'official' fences.

I still suck at it, but at least, I can buy a whole bunch of them at once.

The only problems I ever have is dealing with multiple opponents and having my framerates drop to shit. Sometimes, multiple guys can hurt you a lot, especially if they can summon help. For example, 2 Xivali's with their summoned Clanfears, a Spider Deadra and it's little guy, plus a Storm Antranoch can hurt you bad. Don't get trapped in a corner where they can surround you. Stay moving and switch to some thing ranged like magic (arrows are too slow once they are close). Also, try not to even touch summoned minions, they are a waste of time.

The nice thing about Orges is that they are so slow that you should be able to avoid most hits. Go forward, attack, retreat, repeat and he can't hit you.

Generally speaking I had no problems with most enemies, not even around the dreaded 13th... They can't hurt you if they can't see you; sneaking rules. :)

By the way, did anyone do the quest in that one city to the right of imperial city (dunno the name), where you have to find a painter? What they do with the graphics there is pretty damn cool. If you haven't seen it, go look around, speak to the shop keepers...

And pretty damn imaginative as well, I'd say. Most of the city quests are pretty repetitive. Grab this, take it there, slay that thing, but every once in a while you get to do something really cool...like the painter....or the guy stuck in his dream...

About what level can I expect stuff above Orcish to start dropping? Really gettin tired of my armor..

Has anyone seen any mods that improve all the npc AI? i know the ai was dumbed down alot right before the game was released because the npcs would wonder off and be hard to find and all sorts of other crazy things. Well thats exactly what i was looking for when i bought this game. then i get it and start playing and find out 99% of the time the npcs just stand around and talk to eachother about pointless stuff. I want some npcs to steal and start fights and all sorts of other stuff. i want to see shop keepers restock shelves after stuff has been stolen or knocked off of them. basicly i want a world that has some real depth to it.

You'll probably want a hefty CPU to be able to handle it ;)

i have a 3700+ and 2gigs of ram so it shouldnt be a problem at all. as it is the game runs very smooth for me even on all the highest settings.

Hmm. I'd like to see how the Radiant AI performs if it's scaled up to the level you're suggesting. I think performance is part of the reason why Bethesda rolled it back.

Niave.. AI is arguably more intensive than any graphical calculations you need to do, and we have seperate cards just for that. I see a time in the next couple years where we get dedicated AI cards, even. As for now, I doubt you'll see some of the stuff you want to see.

Hmmm, dedicated AI cards? That would be interesting.

Yet largely obsolete - as with the PPU. Multiple CPU cores can accomplish much the same effect, albeit not as pronounced, but they are fast becoming a standard.

I have the same setup with a 6800 GT 256 MB and mine runs at 5-10 FPS on highest settings.........what video are you running???

a 7800gt 256mb and it runs flawlessly smooth
I bought the game expecting the kinda AI they had in the preview videos then when i get it its dummbed down to very dull and retarded. basicly im very disapointed with it. i know its possible to mod the AI but i havnt got the slightest idea how to do it and i would rather have what the npcs do come as a surprise to me rather then knowing exactly what every one does because i was the one that told them what to do. Just simple stuff like the npcs going to work and buying food and eating walking a dog whatever. right now all they do is stand around and talk to other npcs. walk back and forth to work if they have a shop. i want the version of the game before they dummbed it down.