Oblivion Realm: mods for variety and interest

[TenShadows]

I always groan when I see a gate pop up on my radar: I know it's the exact same s#*! as always, but I also know I can't ignore it and let the gates keep popping up all over the place like flies. For the sake of Tamriel, I must close it. I found a mod to trim down their numbers but they're still otherwise basically the same.

 

Anything out there to spice things up a bit? Add in features of interest, make them a bit more fun to go through, less of a slog?

[RomanR]

There are mods to at least quicken this sometimes tiresome work, this one catched my eye:

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/48332 (Project Oblivion Gate Destruction Spell)

It promises same rewards as you close the Oblivion Gate in original way.

Edited September 10, 2022 by RomanR

[IcelandicPsychotic]

It's a shame that the Oblivion gates weren't better implemented. I think they're really cool but there are only a handful of Oblivion worlds so once you've gone through a couple of gates you've seen them all. I found two mods that might spice things up a bit although they aren't exactly what you're looking for.

[Oblivionaddicted]

You should test No more empty dungeons and More consistent and diverse Oblivion enemies.

[Pellape]

As I play the game for the 4th or 5th time, I only play my own quests I make myself right now. The suggested mods seems all great really, specially as the gates has so low rewards. I did the same around 2006, I could not refuse to close down every gate I could find and if you do not want to use the suggested mods, the fastest way to get rid of the gates is to complete the MQ as fast as possible. :D I have not been inside a gate for a year I think, but I do have approx 200 more quests or rather quest parts to add in my WIP, so that is what I should keep focus at and so far it looks promising. :D I do not start the game until the next quest part is made. :wink: It is very repetitive and a bit boring to make them, as they are the same right now, more or less, but in the end, the mod will give you many many hours of funnier game play, in those dungeons that has no quests attached and that is approx 170 dungeons. I do not add stuff to them manually, as I do that with scripts, to avoid any form of conflict with any of the mods suggested here. :smile: My quests will work perfect with those other mods, no doubt. My goal is to NOT add anything that would make any conflict(s).

 

So if you enter a gate, do you think it is fun or does it stress you? Do you need to kill everything or try to get to the main tower fastest possible? There are different strategies for sure. 2 years ago, I used TCL at the last and final gate... :wink: A year ago I did not cheat but I ran as fast as possible as then I did remember how to move the most ultimate route at the side of the drill, up through the bridges to close the final gate as fast as possible as it has a timer. :smile: I do think the gates are very boring to play. When you enter them as a new player, that have never played the game, they look so great and are thrilling, but that feeling disappears fast. After I made 5 of them, they became so boring and I did start to feel stressed when I got inside one, tried to complete them as fast as possible, to be able to go and do something funnier. What is funnier? Well a good balanced dungeon, with a chance to find something unique. I must have a carrot to do something, a fun quest really and that is why I add quests to all those quest less dungeons in the first place, giving myself a reason to actually enter them at all. 72 quest parts released and I have 76 local in my game, so 4 are not released yet. School work slowed the progress down a lot.

 

I forgot to ask: Is this your first play through or? If it is not, then avoid the gates if you think or feel they are getting frustrated to play. Do you really use the orbs? If not, just leave the random gates really as they are. Focus at the fun stuff. :smile: Also play a player quest mod in between, if it is not your first play through, do that as soon as you start to feel a bit bored of the origin Bethesda quests.

 

After 16 years with Oblivion, well back and forth, I try to only do fun stuff. :D Making my own base and stuff and my own quests, I can form the game into exactly as I want it to be. Even if I made them myself, I enjoy playing them. :D So many players, or rather modders made so cool and fun stuff, some made some quest mods that are much funnier to play then any original quests. Take one day in a time. The game will still be there tomorrow and next week and maybe even be there still in the year 2039... It all also depends on if they suceed to make Starfield and later TES 6 into funnier games than Skyrim. I do play Skyrim 4 days a week right now and Oblivion 3 days, in between all school work. I think I will return to Oblivion no matter if I play those 2 new games or not. Oblivion is unique and very easy to mod, compared to Skyrim for sure. I made 2 small Skyrim mods but I did not enjoy making them.

Edited September 11, 2022 by Pellape

[TenShadows]

Doing Peryite's quest currently, and another related thing crops up: every Daedric Realm (save for Shivering Isles, thankfully) is Deadlands. This is not only boring, it goes very much against the lore. I wish there was a mod to deal with it.

[Fiore1300]

I always groan when I see a gate pop up on my radar: I know it's the exact same s*** as always, but I also know I can't ignore it and let the gates keep popping up all over the place like flies. For the sake of Tamriel, I must close it. I found a mod to trim down their numbers but they're still otherwise basically the same.

 

Anything out there to spice things up a bit? Add in features of interest, make them a bit more fun to go through, less of a slog?

So, I have have an idea for this. From an older post:

 

Aside from these three potential routes, there is another chance for variety in producing different biomes for the Oblivion Gates that might be present in any of these solutions. A lot of people have brought up the complaint that the dungeons are oppressively and overwhelmingly red. Now you don't really get similar complaints about other dungeons types which generally share the same color pallets between them (like the white-and-blue Ayleid ruins), so this might have less to do with a lack of variety and more to do with red itself. Nonetheless, I think we could introduce variety here. As an example, I propose four different potential "biomes" for the Oblivion Gates: Fire, Famine, Flood, and Fissure. Basically these biomes would offer different color pallets, lighting, scenery, and perhaps even traps and enemies. Based on Dagon's power over natural disasters, Fire would be most similar to vanilla - a red volcanic hellscape. Famine would be based on a desert with browns and oranges. Flood would be locked in a perpetual hurricane. Very wet with dark colors, lit by lightning strikes. And finally Fissure would be a mostly subterranean kind of dungeon, a bit of a mix of the other biomes. Earthquakes would frequently shake the dungeon, and things like rock fall traps might be common.

Part of a longer post where I discussed "three potential routes": expanding the pool of dungeons, removing the randomized element, or increasing the randomized element.

 

In any case the idea of having different biomes, each with their own pattern of challenges and encounters, was my favorite idea. I give a rough idea for the variation between biomes, but daedra encounters provide one example of differentiation between biomes.

 

Flame Atronachs are more common in Fire realms, Frost Atronachs are more common in Famine realms, Storm Atronachs are more common in Flood realms, and all three are equally likely to appear in Fissure realms. Meanwhile Hungers might appear exclusively in Famine realms, while Spider Daedra might only appear in Fissure realms.

 

Likewise environmental hazards will follow different patterns. While lava fields are common in Fire, Famine might have lakes of acid which disintegrate your armor and weapon, while Flood realms might have water hazard that require the player to make their way through submerged areas without drowning.

Edited April 1, 2023 by Fiore1300