The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

McRed

I've been hearing good things about Oblivion since the day it came out, so I've decided it's about time I went out and bought the PC version to see what all the fuss is about. With the expansion and all the mods though I'm a little confused. If I want to get the most out of time playing should I (Can I?) install the expansion right away if I buy it as well tomorrow? Also, what about community-made mods? Are there any essentials I should start off with, or am I better off waiting until I've got my feet wet?

Also, bonus round: My favorite classes when I played WoW for 2.5 years were the mage and rogue. What classes are similar in terms of game mechanics, or alternatively, which classes are the most "fun".

Feel free to state the blatently obvious since I haven't ever played an Elder Scrolls game, or any other single player RPG in a few years.

Fizban140

Oblivion is a lot of fun and it is easier to get into than Morrowind. There aren't really any class comparisons to WoW but if you enjoy playing a rogue make one in Oblivion because the game has a good sneaking system and the archery is actually fun. There are hundreds of add ons out now (I haven't played in a long time) but I remember the few that I picked up were ones that just made things easier. Like a map mod that colored it and made it easier to read and a bag mod so it was easier to manage gear.

The_Yeorinator

I'd just go ahead and get the expansions and install em. It'll just make that content available for whenever you want to get to it (though I suggest doing so at higher levels).

There's lots of add-ons out there, and a shit ton of great ones. Just make sure you're downloading ones that are worthwhile, and try not to go overkill on things that seem like they might not play nicely together.

Go here for your add-ons: http://elderscrolls.filefront.com/ The site has a lot of files and you can get ratings on all of the plugins before you try any of them.

I never much got into the gameplay-changing plugins; I did however download a lot of ones that add content or small fun things; like a cool library, snail racing, and a sort of interactive farm/winery that was fun to toy around with.

DarkPrimus

Definitely get a couple mods to make the UI more PC-friendly and less clunky.

The_Yeorinator

Oh...some good ones off the top of my head are Cheydinhal Petshop, Ren's Beauty Pack, Natural Environments, and Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul is supposed to be pretty kick ass. Oh, and Kvatch Aftermath is pretty cool.

And yes, get UI mods, and the Elven Map mod if I recall was a good one to make the map better looking.

Aldo

BTmod should be mandatory; no more big ugly console icons, but neat PC size icons.

Obscura's Oblivion Overhaul Lite (aka: OOO Lite) has some must-haves. I just can't wrap my head around the way that enemies scale with your level. With OOO every enemy has a set level and in the beginning this makes you just a lowly guy escaping from jail, but after a while you'll gain strength and you'll be able to beat tougher opponents. Maybe even more important: you are not punished for leveling up. Somewhere around lev 14 there's a jump in difficulty, if you did not specialize in combat (but instead leveled up through stealth, merchandising or athletics) you will be raped sideways by any random mobs you will encounter.

Quest Award Leveling, in the vanilla game the quest rewards are dependent on your level, so if you do a quest on level 1, you get a quest reward for your level. Once you're a few levels higher, that reward will be useless. This wouldn't be all that bad if quest rewards were uninteresting, but some of the best gear in the game can be acquired through this, if you do these quests when you're a high level, otherwise they're just uninteresting bullshit things.
This mod allows you to do whatever you want, whenever you want. You don't have to worry about "oh no, if I help this damsel in distress I won't get the good reward, I'd better grind an extra level and return later".

Illumination Within, makes the game beautiful at night, without raping your videocard.

No Psychic Guards. When you are spotted by a mob in the vanilla game, it will follow you no matter how well you hide, this mod allows you to run and hide. A must have, imo.

Low poly grass, the vanilla grass soaks up resources like woah, this mod fixes all that, without making the game uglier.

Operation Optimization, this mod fixes some funky textures all throughout the game, making the performance much better without making the game ugly.

More information: http://aelius28.googlepages.com/home

(I like Oblivion)

Regrettable

I'd suggest making a custom class, because most all of the premade ones have at least one skill you'd rarely use often enough to level up, and while I found Oblivion much less punishing in this regard than Morrowind, you still want your skills to work for you as much as possible.
Weapons and armour are super handy as you're always hitting things and you're always getting hit.
Security is useful as hell and if you like sneaking around sneak will also be nice to have.
Acrobatics is incredibly easy to level and also very rewarding once your skill starts becoming high enough, and Alchemy is another good one for easy levelling if you take the time to collect ingredients.

Of course those are just suggestions, but my point is that a custom class is a lot more rewarding than most of the premade ones, although you will probably have to play the game a little to find out how you want to play it and what skills you will actually use.

McRed

whoa, Oblivion must have one hell of a community.

I take it since these mods were all created independantly there's every chance that ones that affect similar things could conflict with each other, right? Is this something I'm likely to encounter, and if so, any tips for recognising issues/sidestepping them?

Daedalus

McRed wrote: »

whoa, Oblivion must have one hell of a community.

I take it since these mods were all created independantly there's every chance that ones that affect similar things could conflict with each other, right? Is this something I'm likely to encounter, and if so, any tips for recognising issues/sidestepping them?

Good rule of thumb is that if mods look like they affect the same thing, they probably conflict.

Aldo

McRed wrote: »

whoa, Oblivion must have one hell of a community.

I take it since these mods were all created independantly there's every chance that ones that affect similar things could conflict with each other, right? Is this something I'm likely to encounter, and if so, any tips for recognising issues/sidestepping them?

Yup, the mod community of the Elder Scrolls games is huge. The construction kit is really easy in usage, so that might go for something.

All the mods I suggested didn't cause me any problems.

Shadowfire

BTMod is really the only one you should install. The rest you should wait until you've played the game for quite a while. Much of the bitching people do about the game (scaling of monsters and such) is subjective... some folks don't mind it, some do, and many of the mods (like Obscuro's) fix the "problem" in ridiculous ways.

Really, install BTMod, and get a good 20-30 hours playtime in. Then browse the mods, and see if there's anything you'd like to try.



On a sidenote, when you're ready to play a new character, and want to screw around a bit, The Complete Ranger is a lot of fun. It adds in D&D-like ranger abilities for your character, complete with an animal companion, spells, and skills (skinning animals for their hides, and turning said hides into armor).

Also, if you want to -really- fuck with the game, Hilarity is in order.

TychoCelchuuu

The list is a little outdated but most of the mods are still relevant. Here is another good list]/url]. This page has a great list of quest mods. This link is essential if you want to make Oblivion look better. The Oblivion Modding Forum is an invaluable resource. Read all the stickied posts at the very least.