Difficulty level using OOO, FCOM, MMM, Fran

[tapakidney]

Hi again. In my struggle to get Oblivion running the way I want, I am having a lot of trouble with difficulty. I installed OOO, MMM, FCOM, and Fran. It now seems that no matter where I go, things are just way too hard.

 

I am a stealthy type, still level 1, (really having trouble gaining any levels!), 6 hrs in. Tried Fort Nikel and got my ass handed to me. Couldn't survive more than 30 seconds once I entered the first Oblivion gate, and even the quest in Imperial City, with the graverobbing creep, I really had my hands full on that fight...had to try it about 10 times.

 

Is this normal? Can I adjust difficulty? Are there certain places I should go for my first few levels?

[darkjaffar]

For OOO, yeah the difficulty you are having is normal. OOO removes a lot of the leveling aspects of the game. In other words, high leveled monsters can appear at level 1, and weak monsters can appear at level 30. In particular for stealth characters, you will be knocked around. A lot. A frail character with 45 health or so can often be 2 or one hitted by some monsters that roam around at the beginning of the game. Don't think about visiting Dznot Cave near the Imperial City. In vanilla that was my starter dungeon of sorts and when I tried that in OOO I got smashed.

 

I'm still having difficulties myself with my stealth/magic character in OOO myself. I almost always use my warrior at this point as he can take the hits easily (his armor class is maxed out, but even then there are some enemies that will do serious damage to him). You have to really be sneaky to survive as a stealth character. Even basic marauders are too much for her at times because of their heavy armor and she is forced to fire arrows from a distance. It's even worse with Deadly Reflex because the stupid guys can just magically "duck" under the arrows, even if you aim at their knees.

 

If you have Shivering Isles, I would recommend going there for a while to level up. OOO does not change it at all (though MMM or the others may. I don't use those). At the very least, you won't have to worry about Frost Titans smashing you around at the beginning of the game. There is also a difficulty setting in the options menu. You can move the slider a bit and raise it over time. I prefer not having to do that as it feels a little like cheating. I normally leave mine at 50 or so. I can't think of anything in Cyrodiil itself that is safe. The places I can think of often have dangers on the way (there is a cave-north east of Bruma with pretty easy bandits, but Frost Titans may be destroying everything in their path on the way, for example.)

 

As for the grave robbers, I beat them on my second try with my stealth/magic character. I ended up killing the main guy with a sneak attack arrow in one hit, running to his body, grabbed the key darted out before the second guy could do much damage and hid in the palace until the guards took care of the second one. First try I did the same but underestimated the second guy. I thought I could at least deal with one, but he "ducked" my arrows. By the time I realized I should just grab the key and run, my character had almost no life left. She died on the run. Again, you have to be sneaky and consider sneak attacks against guys you wouldn't normally try sneak attacks on.

[MrFlesh]

Yes it is very difficult for a stealth character. Unlike vannila oblivion steath character does not mean stealth kill everything. Use the FCOM archery option to make your arrows more deadly. This helps a lot as most things spawn in mobs. Also I reccomend adding thieves arsenal. Those additional arrow types help a lot in getting away from the powerful spawns...can't kill it? knock it out and run.

[tapakidney]

Thanks for the input and suggestions! 2 more questions now, kinda noobish ones:

 

How do I GET to Shivering Isles?

 

How do I use that FCOM arrow damage modifier?

 

Thanks!