I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but if it has, well time to hear it again.

Apparently on ATI cards enabling self-shadows creates strange shadow stripes on animals (deer and horses mostly) as well as on heavily armored characters. Is this a common issue, just in the way all ATI cards render those shadows? Is it just with certain models of cards? And most importantly, can it be fixed without disabling self-shadows all together?

I did a quick google on it and didn't find much, you people are usually more helpful anyway.

It's an ATI issue. I'm sure somewhere down the line there will be a driver fix for it. Self Shadows are pretty ugly in this game anyway, though, and even using an NVIDIA card I leave them disabled.

And how. When I upgraded my RAM, I turned Self-Shadows on and wondered why the whole thing looked like ass. Good job, Bethesda.

Point granted on Masquerades. I never said it was perfect in terms of build, but the assessment that it sucked cut deep seeing as how much fun I had with it compared to any other "RPG" that has been released in the past 3 years.

I also covered your points about Arcanum in a review I made before the board crash. Combat was pretty weak to start off with, but the imbalance issues were just rediculous. In a system like Arcanum's, though, there are at least social and quest incentives in roleplaying a Tech-specialized character than in being some faggoty mage. :)

I also had a problem with the retarded level cap. I understand the need for it, since it keeps the player from becoming untouchable. My issue with it, however, is that it kept your NPCs from levelling up as well, which eliminated the incentive for completing quests outside of its effect on faction and community endings. (another problem with Oblivion's Skill-based system, in that the absence of any ending means that there is no incentive for quest completion outside of baubles and coins)

No matter who you are, or how much experience you have, there's always an element of chance that's set by external factors. Your geriatric wizard will always have a chance of striking any object in the event that he's close enough to hit them. Particularly in the event that the goblin has a lowered guard seeing this frail little old man, which negatively impacts his AC and ability to dodge. Even with a 1/16th chance the wizard has in hitting the goblin, that chance still exists. Ruling it completely out simply because you don't think somebody is capable of hitting something even though they have the base functions with which to do so is pretty naive. The only circumstance that should create a 0% chance of strike is in the event that his arms have been paralyzed, or aren't there.

The possibility for a critical also can't be entirely ruled out, because if the wizard has a chance for hitting something, he also has the chance to strike the brain, the heart, an artery, or any other vital part of the creature's anatomy. This has been abstracted in most games, but in games like Fallout and Silent Storm, where hitting certain body parts through called shots affects character status (stun, motionlessness, knockback, all that good stuff) the anatomy factor is a very important and immersive part of the combat. The Fallouts even had an Anatomy perk that gave the player character increased damage rolls, because of the player character's familiarity with anatomy.

Of course, in actual practice, mathematically speaking your mage will almost always die, and one would have to reload a savegame an average of 16 times to get that 1/16th hit, and then probably another 1/20 chance to get a critical. That means that you'd have to reload an average of 36 times just to get a hit that's worth a damn, and I think you can understand how one would have to be a complete idiot to play in such a fashion. So, practically, your complaint regarding the practicality of a die-based system is highly trivial.

As for your issues regarding aesthetics and immersion, that's up to the designers and the art team. I mean, Fallout had animations signifying evasion as well as hideously brutal death, and it was released back in 97. Ultimately, the aesthetic and immersion factor depend a large part on the capabilities of the engine. Silent Storm is full-3D, and renders character positions as they relate to time in the turn series, as well as implementing fully destructible buildings and physics (what the game lacks, though, is a good aesthetic representation of motionlessness or being knocked down, which Fallout has against it). These are mostly left up, again, to the design team. If you think that gliding enemies and swinging wildly at characters presented in the first person is more immersive, then hey, whatever, but how many times have you not stood still when fighting? Now, ultimately, your aesthetic complaint against die-based systems is trivial, as it depends mostly on the game's design.

I don't think talking about this type of stuff is off-topic, since I think the design methods of Bethesda as shown in Oblivion will impact their development of Fallout 3. (outlook not so good) If an RPG moderator disagrees, though, then I won't complain.

A word of warning about ToE. The story isn't that great. ToE is designed directly off of a classic D&D module, and doesn't have much value to a player that doesn't gain nostalgia from having played it in the 80's. Also, while the combat is absolutely increadible, the game itself is highly unstable. I couldn't even get it to play on this computer, so you can expect to jump through a lot of hoops just to get the game running, and that's before the CtDs. For its present 10 dollar price tag, though, the combat is more than worth the hassle.

Good luck finding a copy of Arcanum, though. You might have to acquire it through less than savory means. Arcanum, by the way, is a great example of the lost artform of manual creation. The Guide to the Empire in Oblivion's collector's edition would have been a standard subsection in the manuals of the days of yore.

Silent Storm, by the way, isn't an RPG, but a turn-based tactical combat game. It uses a die roll system, though, and its levelling combines a skill system that increases as the player characters use them, and an experience gain that affects the acquisition of character perks.

The game Hammer & Sickle, though, is basically Silent Storm billed as a tactical RPG. In practice, though, Nival's ambitions didn't live up to what they're capable of, which led to the roleplaying element of the game being absolutely awful. Combat's still awesome, though. I'll probably have a review for it in my chocojournal by the weekend.

Oh no, I never meant to insinuate the game wasn't good. It was fantastic, actually, which was all the more reason I was so disappointed with how poorly optimized it was. You'd think after seeing how stable the source engine was in HL2 that you'd get the same relatively smooth experience from Masquerades but reality can be quite harsh. Outside of the terrible engine problems the game was definitely among the best I've played in a long time, though. I guess I should have been a little more specific during my initial post.

I hear you. I removed the level cap but ultimately it didn't help. It only served to unbalance the game even further. The Dredge really sucks, too, since you go there long before the end of the game and if you spend too much time clearing it out you'll be so overleveled you may lose the desire to finish the game when you finally get out. The only real option is to read a walkthrough about finding the secret passage to completely skip it over if you want any sort of challenge out of the game whatsoever from that point forward, heh. I do usually opt to ignore magic when I replay these days. Tech is far cooler IMO and it's a shame it is so desperately overshadowed by magic.

I'll take your word on it, then. It isn't as if this topic is getting much attention outside of us anyway.

Yeah. In Troika's defense, though, what they received was a mid-production build of the Source, before it had been fully tested and had all of the kinks worked out. Further testing of the engine may have violated their agreement with Valve, and they were relegated to QA'ing the immediate problems for the game.

The last half is conjecture on my part, but they still ended up getting the shaft.

I also would like to clarify and say that Die-based combat systems aren't necessarily the prerequisite for a roleplaying game, it's just that they fit the genre the most in terms of representing player character abilities and the chances of success.

Bitches: Patch

http://www.bethsoft.com/downloads_01.html

So what are the changes with the new patch?

http://www.elderscrolls.com/download...atchnotes5.htm

I was kind of hoping it would fix some of the other more blatant issues but it's a start.

New Ultra-Low settings.

Check your readme file. Its got the notes in there.

Okay, so I've begun making weapons and stuff on my own. I want to make a set of armour which makes me invisible. However, I can't find invisibility spells. Okay, not true, as Ramius Polus (Dude from Arcade U) has a giant one, but I can't use it, because I don't have that much magicka.
Where do I find an invisibility spell I can wield and use on me armour?

Really, you don't want invisibility. And in fact you can't use invisibility on armor. You can, however, use chameleon on armor. If you have enough items to add to 100% Chameleon, then you are completely invisible. I have done this and it worked great!!!

The easiest way I found to do this is by going to and fighting through four oblivion gates, and making sure you get the 30% Chameleon sigil stone (assuming you are high level and getting Transcendant Sigil Stones). You can do this by saving before you grab the stone, and reloading that save as many times as needed to randomly get the Chameleon stone.

Worked great for me!

I've found invisibility somewhat useless...I mean, I'll cast a 10-second invisibility scroll or potion or whatever...then just get in range, but my stuff is enchanted and thus useless when I want one of those 6x crits. 2h Daedric Sword currently seems to be a good "sneak" sword.

I don't know about any of you guys, but I'm interested in seeing your characters, hearing about what you've done in Oblivion, what your favorite stuff is (place, character type, class, armors, clothing, horses, guilds, etc.), any mods you've installed and would recommend, alchemy combinations, enchanments that you've made, etc,

So far this thread hardly seems to be about sharing your experience with each other and to me, that seems like the best part about talking about this game. Debating over leveling and blah blah blah is just pointless. Let's try to maximize the $49+ that we spent on this game and have a good time telling our Oblivion stories...

<END RANT>

Below is Aleyia. Her custom class is going to be Death Dealer (like Selene baby!!). She focuses on blade, conjuration and destruction magic. I'd love to hear some feedback about how she looks. I'm really happy with how she has turned out, but I might tweak her face/stats some more before I start with her.

http://img351.imageshack.us/img351/1...yia03hb.th.jpg http://img351.imageshack.us/img351/7...yia18qj.th.jpg
http://img351.imageshack.us/img351/7...yia23cm.th.jpg http://img351.imageshack.us/img351/4...yia31ml.th.jpg http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/6804/aleyia48qh.th.jpg

I also have a lvl 30 custom-class Elf Ranger named Dayvon (marksman, sneak, alchemy). I didn't tweek his face quite as much. I made him to roughly look like me, and that's it. I have Arborwatch in Chorrol pretty pimped out as you can see in the photo. Thanks to mod's for the custom paintings and the pets.

http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/9...von15ts.th.jpg

Anybody got a free download link for the official mods?

God, I'd just hope that Bethesda pulls their finger out their collective ass and makes the new areas and stuf available in Denmark. They have it it UK, but noooo, not in Denmark. Why, it's not like we require translations or anything. Suckers >=(

I didn't test it out, but pirate bay seems to have something:

http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3475987

After completing the main quest,

If you wait the two weeks or whatever, an arrow appears on your world map as with every other quest. If you can't find it, it's not done.

So I've been playing this game on Ultra Low settings, and I have to say it's kinda lame. I mean, the game looks worse than Morrowind did, and it also runs a bit worse. At least the gameplay's a lot more fun.

Also, what's all of your opinions on 2H blade vs. blade + shield? I've been alternating back and forth and just can't make my mind up. =\

I've been using a Blade and a shield the entirety of my game, thusfar. I think I have something like a "Dwarven Longsword" I stole from someone in the Dark Brotherhood, and a 10 shield point shield I also stole from somewhere. Hell, now that I think about it, I don't think I bought any of my apparel or weapons I use regularly.

Anyway, I probably stick to the blade + shield setup because it seems to make everything easier. The shield can take a lot more of the brunt of the attacks coming your way, and with a one handed blade, I'm able to swing much faster. I know this may not be equal to any more damage, in the end, but whatever. I like it.

Also, RR, the graphics are pretty incredible on the 360. Thanks to everything being standard, and no one having differing setups, it's played like it is meant to be played. The environments are gorgeous, especially the swaying grasses, and nice water effects. Also, you can see miles and miles into the horizon, and then eventually ride a horse into that very horizon. Trees aren't always "popping" up, and it seems very fluid. Sure, loading screens are way too common in the cities, but what are you gonna do.

Well of course it will be lame running DOS Oblivion. I mean part of the main appeal of the game is the graphics and making it seems like a living breathing world. Gameplay, music, story are fantastic as well.

I haven't even come close to finishing this yet. 95 hours.

Yeah, I watched my roommate playing the game on his computer and just about everything was up at max settings. It really is a beautiful looking game. It's hilarious without dynamic lighting, though. There's all the stuff where he can't make out things in the distance of a cave or has issues seeing at night and I'm kinda like, "What?".

Oh yeah, is silver the only type of weapon that's effective against ghosts? I've been carrying around a silver longsword for a while now, and I want to know if I can ditch it in favor of an elven or dwarven one (or if I have to wait for something better).

I believe both silver and magic swords can be used to attack ghosts. I'm not positive, though.

Yarg, so silver's the only non-enchanted sword I can use? Looks like I'm lugging that POS around forever, then. =(