The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

What's with the random people on GF and the official Oblivion boards bitching about the major/minor skill system and levelling? A bunch of people are writing shit like unless you know exactly what you're doing, you'll level too fast and then get smoked by even the low powered enemies.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

About how long does it take before you can start doing stuff at the arena?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

So, what class have you guys been playing with?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm finally playing the game and I'm at the point where I get to choose my class. I chose my birthsign as the Thief. In hindsight I'm thinking that might not have been such a great idea . . . I'm a dark elf and plan to go your a sword fighter that backs up his martial prowess with magic. So far I was thinking of making the following skills major:

Alchemy
Alteration
Blade
Destruction
Illusion
Marksman
Restoration

Also. why do I have five kajillion FFDshow audio decoders open in my system tray while Oblivion is running?

Is their a command to display FPS?

Is there a way to change your appearance after starting the game? I just downloaded some new eye mods and I really want to change my Dark Elf's eyes.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Does anybody know how to haggle well? The merchants are ripping me off. I really need to increase my mercantile skill - can you only do that by buying and selling stuff?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Ok... I gained like 2 levels in an hour. That seems a little fast. Time to start using my minor skills - heavy armor, marksman and blunt. Is anybody finding that they are levelling too fast?

Where do you go to join the guilds? I asked one of the Imperial City guards and he told me that there were no guilds in the city. I haven't come across any yet.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I found some neato stuff:

To enable FPS display: ~ to open the console, then type "TDT"

To improve performance outside: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/i...owtopic=283055

Basically:

Go to your Oblivion game folder,

"OBlivion_default"

Search for [Grass]

[Grass]
iMinGrassSize=80
fGrassEndDistance=3000.0000
fGrassStartFadeDistance=2000.0000
bGrassPointLighting=0
bDrawShaderGrass=1
iGrassDensityEvalSize=2
iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=2
fWaveOffsetRange=1.7500

Change the iMinGrassSize=80 to something like =140, or 160 (I'm using 160). Then you can increase the EndDistance to 10000.0000 and the FadeDistance to 5000.0000. You must make the file READ-ONLY to prevent Oblivion from resetting these to default.

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Holy crap. Why did this suddenly get so hard?

Spoiler:

So I just got through the first Oblivion gate, barely. Now I have to go into the town and kill stuff, but those little dinos murder me in like 2 seconds. I think that it's time to start doing some guild quests so that I can get some much needed upgraded equipment.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Grawl

So how much does the FPS improve with this?

I didn't check my FPS before - but other people that have done it have reported increasing their FPS as much as 10 when outside.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Grawl

I encountered a weird bug. I was stealing in a house, and some woman came downstairs. She didn't catch me stealing, but said "get out of my house!". I left, and since that moment she follows me everywhere I go. Even when I fasttravel, she's there.

Lol. Kill her, maybe she'll haunt you as a ghost!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Do you guys have any mods installed? I've currently got some eye mods installed (they add extra sets of eyes) - having only one set of eyes for Dark Elves at character creation was lame. Now my elf has Lilac coloured eyes. I also plan on installing a mod that slows down skill progression because I hate levelling from casting a create light spell like 4 times and from constantly using my restoration spells. I also found a mod that puts a free house somewhere in the world - I'm definitely going to use that because I'm way too poor to be able to buy one at the moment. I can't even afford to buy new spells.

How ya doing, buddy?

It sounds like it has something to do with your footstep volume . . .

One odd thing - when I run Oblivion I get a kajillion FFDshow audio decoders opening up in my system tray. W-T-F?

Grawl - how is that guide coming along?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Five people. Wow. Who are you working with to write it?

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I don't have a "bEnableBoundingVolumeOcclusion" in my Oblivion_default. Odd. . .

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I found another performance tweak while browsing the GameFAQs forums. Again, people report 8-10 FPS increase on average.

Change

iPreloadSizeLimit=26214400

[OPENMP]
iThreads=3
iOpenMPLevel=10


To

iPreloadSizeLimit=1000000000

[OPENMP]
iThreads=20
iOpenMPLevel=20

I have yet to test it myself. Also, nobody appears to know what this does - it just works.

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More ini tweaks that may or may not help.

Quote:

here are two things you can change in the .ini to make the game play a little smoother and possibly boost your fps.

set iFPSClamp = 80
Doing this locks the FPS and does not allow it to go higher than 80. Why would you want to do this? it stops sudden fps spikes and makes the game play smoother.

uInterior Cell Buffer=64
uExterior Cell Buffer=128
You should set these to the ammount of ram your computer has. I have 1gb ram and have set it here, if you have 2gb or if you are running a higher end computer. you may want to set it at 128/256

These have boosted and smoothed out my fps by probably 5-10 and im running on a 9800 pro.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Winter Storm

It's so weird. Nobody had to do all this .ini editing(atleast I didn't) for Morrowind just to get it to play at a desirable framerate. LOL Oblivion is so technologically badass that you need a super computer from the future.

My game ran fine before any tweaking. The tweaking is just to get a little boost here and there.

BTW - the slow levelling mod rules. I can actually hit people with my sword without gaining levels every two seconds.

Levelling tips (I haven't read them yet, but it's long and looks interesting) - http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/i...owtopic=300984

Quick question - How is your total magicka calculated? Does it go up each level based on your intelligence like your HP/endurance? The manual just says that you start with magicka = 2xInt

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I found another ini tweaking thread. This one provides ini's to download. I'm currently using the other tweaks that I posted in the thread (except for the FPSClamp), but I might switch to one of these if they work better.

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/i...owtopic=299166

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So I'm using a mod that makes you level skills slower and I "borrowed" a fine steel longsword from one of the fighters guilds - the game is suddenly much more manageable. I can actually do damage in melee now!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I want to level slower because when I level at the default pace I get pwned by the enemies in the ugly ass city after the first Oblivion gate. Yes, I am stubborn, I don't want to lower the difficulty slider.

I'm also probably going to use a mod that gives x5 multiplier for gaining one level of a skill of the appropriate type - cuz you know, wasting time levelling 30 levels of skills each level to ensure that I get those modifiers is a huge pain in the ass and makes me enjoy the game less. I play this to feel emersed and to do what I want, not to feel like I'm grinding in a MMORPG except by myself.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

My major skills are: Alteration, Blade, Destruction, Illusion, Light Armor, Mysticism and Restoration

I think the problem had more to do with the fact that I wasn't getting x5 stat multipliers when I was levelling up. I usually had 2-3 - basically, I wasn't doing a lot of damage and the enemies were doing stupid amounts of damage to me. The fact that I couldn't afford new weapons, armor or spells at level 4 also certainly didn't help.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Yes. Each skill upgrade gives you a .5 addition to the modifier for the stat that governs that trait. e.g. increase Heavy Armor skill by one level = x.5 modifier to endurance - so you need to raise 10 skill levels per stat to get the maximum modifier. You can raise any combination of skills with the same governing trait - their .5 addition is cumulative.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Grawl

Besides, the enemies level when you level... it's not much use.

Yes it is. Levelling slower gives you more time to explore, earn money and upgrade your equipment so that it is at an appropriate level to give you a fighting chance against the enemies.

Does anybody know where I can find a mercantile trainer?

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Spike

THANK YOU. People wrote long and confusing paragraphs about how the stat upgrade works and all they needed to say was that. Thanks for finally getting me to understand how that works!! You're the best!

:biggrin:

I didn't mention that the game only counts skills upgrades before you get the level up sign. If you raise 10 major skills, get the level up sign, and then level up 10 minor skills, those minor skills will be counted towards your NEXT level, and not the level that you will gain when you sleep.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I found a FFDshow audio decoder fix! Here's what you do - go to the settings and disable mp3 decoding. Problem solved.

Jam it back in, in the dark.