Oblivion

[Vicious Love]

PvK said:
...and games where the difficulty of the world is magically based on the level of your character.

Y'see?! Y'see?! That's what I'm talkin' 'bout! It's all inert, like the world is either structured entirely around your character, or structured around nothing at all, and waiting around for the sole motive force that is your character. I hate that. Not really a fan of ridiculous power curves, either, nor of games that can't think of a better way to represent power than the ability to withstand three dozen axe blows to one's unarmored face, but it's the repeatedly-lamented inertness that most gets to me.

[Saber Cherry]

Honestly, iron axes just don't hurt very much. Especially now that axes are blunt.

I also don't like crazy power curves - System Shock got it about right. But after a year there was a mod that somewhat fixed the Morrowind level system, so don't put your money into long-term investments yet. It's starting to sound like I'll have to wait until somebody de-leveled-lists all of the levelled lists, too, which is a lot of work. Problem with mods is that you're all fat and happy, thinking, "So much work went into this mod, it'll be great! New enemies like Giants and Dragons, how fun!" when suddenly a naked nymph starts killing your level-7 character, resists all your spells, and moves around at the speed of light evading your arrows like Neo in the Matrix. And you realize that a sufficiently complex mod needs to be modded itself, and then the whole house of cards collapses.

But seriously, I think the patient can be saved

[DominionsFan]

I am totally addicted to this game. Man if World of Warcraft would be like this....that would be THE MMORPG.

[OG_Gleep]

Vicious Love said:
I have absolutely no clue what the developers intended you to do.

Its pretty obvious by looking at the pre-generated classes, at least you can tell what they didn't intend for you to do.

I bought the book a couple days ago, and here's a basic rundown how how the system works.

There seems to be two ways of determining what level/creature you will face.

There is a creature table that will pick the appropriate mob for your level. There are multiple types of monsters that are fixed level, and what is generated is based off your level. For instance:

Skeletons will always be level 3. Skeleton warriors will always be level 6. If you enter a dungeon at level 1, you will face skeletons. If you eneter the same dungeon at level 5, you will face skeleton warriors. The equipment carried by each type of enemey improves the more you move up the chart. The top tier mob of each table will always be scaled to your level to provide a challenge for high level characters.

Certain Enemies, like Bandits, or Bosses, will always be +X above your level. A bandit leader for instance, will always be 7 levels above you, and will be given level appropriate equipment.

Quest rewards can also be tied to your level. For instance, a ship gets Hijaked while your onboard. If you complete the quest at level 1, you will get 75g. If you complete it at lvl 20, you will get 450g.

Certain quests have a level requirement as well, and you can't get access to them until you reach a certain level.

Honestly I don't know how else you would do it. Because of how opened eneded this game is, there is no way to know when someone will get to a certain quest. In order to keep a non-linear structure, and still provide a challenge the whole way through, I can't think of a better system.

I have put a good chunk of time into the game, and I haven't even scratched the surface according to the guide book. Anyhow, I have the damn thing, if you have any questions let me know.

[Vicious Love]

OG_Gleep said:
Its pretty obvious by looking at the pre-generated classes, at least you can tell what they didn't intend for you to do.

Whuh?

[shovah]

I agree, this game is huge. ive spent about 3 days of playing (i think im up to around 15 hours, maybe a little more) and ive only done the first part of the main quest (go to a monastry and talk to some guy). I would just like to suggest that if you get a chance to join the dark brotherhood take it. it leads to a huge series of side quests along with good rewards, unique items (and an interesting offer from a fellow assasin) and a great plot (really dont wana spoil it on you)

[Saber Cherry]

I have read so many threads about the pros and cons of Oblivion that I dreamt last night I was playing, and I got to level 14 before I even did anything, just from accidentally using really wierd major skills. I was scared to death of going into combat... Pretty odd dream. I almost never dream about games I haven't played, so I guess my mind modelled it after Morrowind.

[shovah]

the best advice i can give anyone who gets/has it is do not play to level. play to explore/quest. the fact that things levels are dependant on yours means most places you can handle and if theres something you cant handle then go somewhere else. if you decide to just stay in a rather small area repeating the same task you'll get bored fast. just consider leveling up your skills to be a bonus.

[Endoperez]

I have a fabulous time playing Dungeon Crawl. While it does lose a little in the graphics department, and there are very few sub-quests, the main quest is very interesting, and very hard. The main quest is "get to the bottom of this dungeon, grab an Orb, and return". One of the hardest sub-quests is "stay alive". Thus far, I've managed to get farthest with a Spriggan Reaper, surviving mainly on spells but doing a fair bit of melee. Spriggan is the weak, fast, magically tuned race who should stay as far away from melee as possible; Reaper is a hybrid caster/fighter, and I'm probably going to kill some orcs next.

The skill system is just suberb. Skills raise when you use them. You need experience to advance levels, but getting experience also gives you points in your skill pool. You can't get better at skills if your skill pool is empty, and you can't choose to save points in your skill pool for later, so most of the boring optimization is out. The only thing left is to choose what skills you want to use, and what you want to raise faster.

Sometimes I miss the fancy graphics, but the gameplay is so much better that I couldn't possibly choose something mediocre like Oblivion over Crawl.

[shovah]

i find that extemely offensive. while the graphics are one of the things that attracted me to oblivion they are by no means what keeps me in it