Oblivion, A Not-so-serious Review

[thanateros]

I wanted to do something more satyrical on the shortcommings of Oblivion, now that after playing the game for a more considerable stretch of time are more apparent. What I'm reviewing here is every skill in the game. First I'll lay some groundwork in terms of what each skill does, though I'm sure most of you are familiar. Next I'll talk a bit about how it works in the game, being how useful it is, when you use it etc. At some point I'll compare the skill with how it was in Morrowind, to at least draw some connection between the improvments, shortcommings, and imagination from it to Oblivion. Lastly I'll discuss the gameplay balance issues, what they are, the problems and potential fixes. Keep in mind this will probably be an ongoing project, as I'm sitting here with a mere 45 minutes before my next class so won't get through everything. And yes, the title is a bit of a paradox, that was a literary decision, deal with it.

 

Combat Skills:

 

Block: Easy enough, you put up a shield, sword, axe, staff, or bow and reduce the amount of damage you take. Wait...you can block with a BOW?! Somehow this inclusion in the skill doesn't make sense especially when you consider at higher ranks of Block you can disarm and knock your enemies to the ground. Technically speaking, with a bow, the chances of it actaully being able to stop a claymore attack is, say, nonexistent. Sneers to Bethesda for that mishap. With the new combat system block becomes more of an active experience compared to Morrowind, which was designed so that whether or not you blocked was based on how high you skill was. The combat in Oblivion is much more interactive and challenging in many ways, and block is one of the more useful skills. What they should have done, however, is at a higher rank make it so that your character doesn't become stunned whenever another NPC uses a power attack on you. Think about it, those lowly goblins can throw you to the ground at high levels even when your block is so high you could repel an RPG. Of course this means no instant power attack for you either, but hey, I'll jump on the Beth bandwagon and claim the alteration for the sake of balance. Another, albeit more time consuming, change that would have made more sense would be to include different benefits for different types of equipment while blocking. For example, blocking with a shield knocks them back, but disarming doesn't make much sense when you logically consider what holding a shield would actually physically require the character to do. This could find it's place with a parry weapon such as a one-handed sword. It makes more sense that a character with a high level of block using a sword would parry to disarm their enemy. Or in the case of a blunt weapon, as the enemy bounces off, a counterattack power move triggers while they're still vulnerable. Oh and if you haven't thought about it already, consider these as potential mod fixes, in fact, I CHALLENGE modders to make these fixes (and yes, I know what you can and can't do in the CS).

 

Armorer: Useful in Morrowind, moreso in Oblivion. I'm more impressed with Beth's update of how this skill works in tandem with the repair hammer than anything. Repair hammers are all the same, but how well you use them is dependent upon your skill level. The various levels of the armorer are also an interesting addition to the game, especially considering the Expert and Master abilities. Intersting indeed. I don't have a lot of qualms about this skill at all. Beth did a good job of making you want to have it at high level. Any adventuring in this game will require you at some point to lug around a toolbox full of these things. Making dungeon runs with 4 swords just knowing several of mine will break along the way made me turn around and pick up this skill. You won't be dissappointed with this one. Beth achieved a small victory when they updated this skill.

 

Heavy Armor: Wear heavy armor, at higher ranks, you get more benefits; it's self-explanatory if you ask me. The addition of the ranks is something I'll talk a lot about, they really add the desire to want to get good at a skill, so you have to choose them carefully. At earlier levels this type of armor is more useful than its lighter counterpart, but then again, this is also a matter of what type of character you are, roleplay this one kids.

 

Blunt: The use of blunt oriented-like weapons including Maces, Hammers, Staves, and Axes. Beyond what we already all know about Staves and Axes not really qualifying, my critique again centers around the rank advancement. While the addition of various kinds of power attacks at subsequent levels makes logical sense (smash more = smash harder) one thing that really urks me is the utter lack of imagination at higher levels. All of the weapon skills end up in the same place, that is, a cool power attack with the chance to knockdown and disarm. While I recognize the need to release the game at some point, this is the part where modders need to take out their paper and pens (or Notepad or Word) and take some notes. The mastery level doesn't make sense, well kind of, but they could have added a distinct array of mastery level abilities so that playing one kind of weapon is a different experience than another kind of weapon. For Blunt weapons, instead of disarming them, I would take the more Blunt route and give the master the chance to crack a foe's armor into pieces. The weight of a master wielded warhammer should not only knock you to the ground, it should punish you for even thinking that wearing armor was a good idea in the first place. After all, I would like to run screaming across the wilderness to the nearest Legionaire when a Nord starts chasing my with a monsterous weapon.

 

Blade: For all of those Thieves, Assassins, Knights, Spellswords, and sharp edged wielding adventure goers, congradulations, you are all now apart of the elite group of players lumped into the same category because it didn't make enough sense for there to be a short and long blade skill. Morrowind wins on this one, somehow it's a really far stretch of the imagination to suppose a 2 pound dagger is coupled with the Strength attribute rather than Agility. It's a simple realism plug that was amazingly overlooked. Sneers to Beth on this one. Also, as Peregrine and I have discussed at great length, having all of the blades under one category actaully inhibits character options...yes, you read that correctly. The idea behind this argument is that players who choose blade are limited in the effectiveness of their weapon, especially for Thief classes. Consider that as a Thief, you have the option of either using that crappy silver dagger, or doing a considerable amount more damage with a silver claymore. In terms of roleplaying, those dedicated enough to a build should be able to stick to their roots, but I shouldn't have to stretch my imagination to believe I live in a world where daggers and claymores fall under the same skill and pretend like there isn't a difference in how much damage they do. I would hope someone at Bethesda is reading this, because you all seriously missed an important aspect to such an open ended game: IT'S ALOMST IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE BALANCE. When most players create characters they make decisions as to what skills to use based upon an idea about how their character will function within the environment. Without a clear distinction as to the benefits of using one type of weapon instead of another, I might as well play a thief with an enchant Dai-Katana on my back since it's quite obvious how impossible it is to dish enough melee damage with smaller weapons at higher levels. Funny how Blade falls under the "Rant about how you can't balance open ended games" category. But of course, Axe falls under Blunt, so this connection isn't unwarranted if you really think about the association I'm making. In terms of the Rank levels, again, getting access to more skills makes sense, and I'll probably make the same point when I get to Hand to Hand. The Expert and Mastery levels also fall into the category of 'needs more work'. Knockdown with a bladed weapon, yea, like that's realistic. Paralyze, well, maybe if the sword is poisoned. My ideas about what to replace these isn't completely developed, but it would be extremely interesting to have a % chance for chopping off a limb at mastery level. I suspect that this isn't at all possible without a patch update, but I would really like to see something more in tune with the actual skill implemented than another neat benefit for gaining master when every other weapon skill seems to enjoy the same thing. Again, this plays into the decisions made by the player to design their character with a specific idea about how they want to function. Beth would do well to diversify their combat Power Attacks to make each skill truly unique.

 

Athletics: Want to run farther and faster than the other NPC's. Invest in this skill. It's what determines how fast you can go and how long you can swim. It might also have something to do with how long you can breathe under water, but that's not completely important. This skill is nice if you want to always be leveling a major skill. Just run around and you gain levels (swimming makes the process go faster). That's a rather useless investment of a skill that doesn't really dramatically change how I play my character. Every character can run and swim, Athletics is one of those skills for characters who think it actaully counts for something in the game environment. I proudly differ (begging to differ seems like your opinion requires another person to agree; it's an opinion, it shouldn't matter). Not only is it a relatively useless skill in terms of game mechanics, the Rank system in Oblivion is completely illogical. OK, there does have to be some negotiation between absolute realism and fun, but since Athleticism is neither of those, I don't even know why I should change how the Ranks work. For the article's sake, I will. The idea that you regenerate stamina while running boggles my mind, no, make that, exhausts my mind (of the stamina I'm not regenerating because I reject this skill completely). Having it doesn't let you do anything amazing in the game and running around to regenerate stamina makes no sense. If I were to actaully make this skill useful, I would use it in a synergistic way to compliment the investment of other skills. So instead of regen stamina, try these on for size. Apprentice: hold breath twice as long; Journeymen: reduce stamina spent jumping by 1/2; Expert (this is where it gets fun): How fast you travel is not effected by how much weight you carry (of course, if you are over-encumbered, you can't move); Master: Using normal or power attacks does not expend stamina. Now I recognize this might have some balance issues, but as we know, games like Oblivion are naturally suseptible to being unbalanced. If Athletics was actually this useful within the game environment, I would deffinitely consider it for a Major skill. I'm not fond of the skills whose Ranks simply give you % improvement over something you gained as an Apprentice. If we don't have diversity between the skills, we might as well have diversity within the skills to make using it a fun experience and one that will enhance the gameplay in a smooth progression from low to high levels.

 

Hand to Hand: Use your fists, if you dare, against an entire bandit population of heavy and light armor. At least in this game you don't have to spend hours punching a rat just so its fatigue gets low enough for you to be able to damage its health. That was an obvious fix, and while I'm glad they did pay attention to what the fans were saying, my appreciation for this skill ends about there. What about gauntlets providing extra damage, because I know I'd be pretty grumpy if I got punched in the face by someone wearing Ebony Gauntlets. While this is more of an equipment issue, it fits here because the skill limits the character to an incredible amount of time to make this skill useful (casting a heal another on a crab and beating it within inches of its life over and over again can't be fun for the crab). The ranks, like the others, lack imagination and the understanding that players who focus their characters around this skills want to be punch throwing bad@$$es. Leave out the inclusion of blocking bonuses, simply because in order for it to be effective at actaully reducing damage, you need to have a high level block skill; include those benefits in the block skill, and now you're cooking with fleshy fire. Paralyzing someone with your fists is illogical; it would (at least for me) make more sense that if you are a master, the punches you throw are so devastating that it causes internal bleeding or damage to organ tissue. With this in mind, I would find it more feasible that the master of hand to hand would cause something to the effect of drain health at (oh I dunno) 10 pts for 10 seconds (of course this would have to be scripted to be nonmagical damage). In all likelihood an NPC would bleed out until they die, but if you make the effort to get the skill high enough, why not enjoy some rediculous perks?

 

This concludes my first article for this "column", I had a lot of fun writing it and coming up with new ways of contributing to a game experience that doesn't exist yet, but I must admit, I do have an agenda. I really do encourage Modders to look over what suggestions I made and would equally encourage them to make these game changes. If it so happens that someone (crosses fingers) does try to work it out, then feel free to let us know.

 

Since there are so many skills, and because I want these articles to be comprehensive, I'll be breaking up the submissions by subject, but still look under this topic for updates.

 

Next time I'll tackle magic, and do I have a lot to say on the subject. Until then.

 

:D

[Povuholo]

Keep it up, nice stuff! I guess you just edit your first post to include the rest of this review? :D

Funny signature too :)

[Peregrine]

I would hope someone at Bethesda is reading this, because you all seriously missed an important aspect to such an open ended game: IT'S ALOMST IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE BALANCE.

 

To add to that... in a single player rpg like Oblivion, balance shouldn't matter. Especially not when balance becomes such a high priority that you start taking away character options to enforce it. Think about it, there is absolutely no PvP aspect to Oblivion. So who are you balancing against? Why does it matter if, for example, spears are extremely powerful because of how their reach interacts with physics-based combat? Or if putting daggers/rapiers/similar light weapons under agility gives agility an extra skill over strength? Who is suffering a loss here?

 

The answer is not "the player who wants to use a sword". Oblivion is a role-playing game, not a roll-playing game. There's a huge difference between the two, and the focus of Morrowind (and in theory, Oblivion) is supposed to be on the former. The point is to role-play a character, not metagame the system to get 5% more damage. So the sword-user isn't harmed at all, as long as their character choice is capable of suceeding in the game as well.

 

So the person who takes the loss in the name of balance is the person who wants to play a character that uses a spear, or the mage who can't swing his staff in a desperate melee fight, or the sneaky thief who can't use his natural agility for combat and has to spend endless hours at the gym like every other melee tank. And what is gained? Absolutely nothing. And the price we pay for this worthless balance is all the variety and character depth that made Morrowind so much fun, and absurd skill issues like blunt axes.

[thanateros]

For some reason the view count doesn't work, so I can't even tell if people are reading this. I might just be writing to myself and a sliver of the population on the forums, and it's to those dedicated readers I would like to segue into lambasting the magic skills.

 

Destruction: Throw fireballs, shoot lightning out of your hand, and cause hypothermia. These are the most obvious skills for this school, but I find the more useful in this game are actaully the Disintegrate skills. Given how rediculous road bandits become at higher levels (dumb, by the way) I always have to have a massive disentigrate weapon/armor spell at the ready. Certainly, as is the case with most schools, this one got much more useful since Morrowind, and now that players conceivably can play as Mages, this skill certainly ranks as mediocre when compared to some of the others. The ranks for all of the magic schools inhibit character development; I thought this engine was supposed to promote character development, oh well, not that I'm overly impressed with it anyway. Destruction houses some rather powerful spells, but given the lack of a coherent Mana progression engine (like that of the relationship between Endurance and Health gained per level) Mage characters get the short end of the melee deficient staff. The idea that you need to have a certain rank to gain access to spells whose mana costs are so rediculous you probably couldn't cast them more than 2 times, ranks high on the list of things that stunt a cohesive and interactive character development engine for magic users. Instead, as I argued in with respect to weapons and the block skill, each school needs to have rank advancements that open up the uniqueness of the skill, not a limitation on what you character can do from level 1. Consider that the amount of magika you have will affect what spells you have, so naturally, higher level spells are unavailable for use by lower level characters. WOW!!! Here are some possible rank implentations (Modder pens at the ready). Novice: well you're novice, suseptible to having your spells fail and cast on yourself. It would make the game much more interesting if a % of failure resulted in some mishap that cause permanent scarring. Welcome to the world of below average, the only place you can go from here is up. Apprentice: you're starting to get the hang of things, so naturally you won't kill yourself when you cast a spell, but you still have a hard time grasping how to finesse your spells, therefore, your character's on target spells have a chance to go wildly off course. I hope you have that staff ready to block with. Journeymen: now that you have some actual skill with your spells, not only do those penalties go away, the damage bonus you receive is a % relative to the amount of magika you have left (like weapon damage and stamina). Expert: So close to being oh-so-sweet, Radius effects are doubled, yum. Master: your are supreme in your ability to cut through the defenses of your foes, their natural resistances to your elemental (fire, lightning, ice) destruction spells are null (magical shields still reduce damage). Overpowered perhaps? Who cares, I'm a master of destruction, don't even try and stop me.

 

Alteration: This skill lets you throw up shields, pick locks, and do a slew of other incredibly useful spells. This ranks high on the list of must have skills, its utility and overall effectiness in Oblivion (the game, not the place) certainly has me wondering why the other schools weren't this sweet. This one, folks, is an all-in-one package for magical schools. It's great for characters who swear off using armor, and for those marksmen out there, a high level on target burden will direct cries of Orcish frustration in your direction. Again, the ranks are an inhibiting factor, and I'm convinced that the earlier ranks should give penalties (because in my mind that's a lot more interesting and fun). So here's what I've come up with for Alteration. Novice: You might as well stay at home, shield spells have a % failure to end up on the npc nearest to you, lockpick spells have a chance to make the lock difficulty go up by 2 levels, and waterbreathing might not work even though you're convinced it is (so your breath slider doesn't visually go down, but actually, it is). Apprentice: You don't completely suck anymore, although you might end up spending all of your Magika to cast a single alteration spell. Journeymen: YAY, no more penalties. Your character character receives a % bonus to any shield spell based on the amount of Magika you have (10-15% of your remaining Magika). Expert: you don't like taking elemental damage, well, you don't have to, the % of resistance on Fire, Frost, and Lightning shields is increased by double (to 60%). Master: this one is tough, considering how broken the last bonus was. Open Lock, Waterwalk, Breathe, and Feather spells don't cost anything to cast. So there!

 

I'd like to point out that even after the first two reviews, the end products are insane, it would probably be wise to implement a harder leveling system considering most of us run around with low level spells and cast them in a frenzy only to realize we have no magika left when that mudcrap decides to take chunks out of us. Harder leveling of skills and in order for you to progress to the next rank, you have to receive training from someone who can train you in the next rank.

 

Illusion: This is a really fun group of spells. Cast light, go invisible or chameleon, command others, make them like you more and keep mages from casting spells. It's a nice even spread of utility and clever combat tricks to annoy and confuse your enemies. It is in this spirit that I created a character whose sole purpose was to be able to run through Oblivion Gate towers and shut them down without ever having to fight anything. It's good times. So, on to the ranks, since not much else can be said for the shear fun of this skill, why not make it more fun? Novice: Creating light might create utter darkness around you, charming people can make them not like you anymore, and trying to cast invisibility might end up attracting every aggressive NPC in the area bearing down on you; basically, you jump up and down and scream at the top of your lungs (with call horse mods floating around, this one shouldn't be too difficult). Paralyze could end up with you on the ground and prone to severe beatings, Mages beware. Apprentice: This one is difficult for some reason, it's hard coming up with a less severe penalty than simply not succeeding at casting a spell. I'll build on the waterbreathing drawback; even though you look like you're invisible, in reality, everyone under the sun (or moon) can see you...and they laugh. Journeymen: No penalties anymore (noticing the trend I suspect, I do believe it takes a certain level of competence in order to use a school of Magic). Again, Illusion bonuses are hard to come up with, but I have to take a stab at 'em. Your character's paralyze and silence spells are free as long as you're successfully sneaking. Expert: The duration of your command spells last twice as long and the level of creatures they affect are doubled. Master: Your charm spells are twice as effective and invisibility doesn't fade away when you perform an action while sneaking.

 

Conjuration: Summon armor, weapons, and monsters of all sorts. Well, so long as you have like 1000 magika. The huge shortcomming in this skill is 1) how rediculously expensive the spells are (both Mana and Coin wise) and 2) they all last for about the time it takes for a summoned monster to engage in combat with an NPC. Well that makes it pretty much useless from my perspective. Better save up so you can get that constant effect summon rat ring you've always wanted. I've always enjoyed the idea of conjuration, but it's never met my expectations. Oblivion made conjuration worse than in Morrowind, far worse. While I agree that the higher level summon spells should cost a lot, without a system for Mages to advance their maximum Mana, this skill becomes the first to suffer the effects. With this, the rank updates are more straightforward, since this skill is almost unplayable when considering the amount of resources you need to have in order to use it. Novice: Any summon creature you cast could last for only 1 second then disappear, HAHA. Apprentice: Just you try casting a summoned creature and see what happens. Summoned monsters have % chance to turn around and attack you...fair enough, they just might not like you. Journeymen: Well, you aren't yet in the upper tier of what it takes to be a summoning machine, penalties are gone. Although nothing happens to your monsters, your summoned items receive and additional 50% armor or damage bonus. Expert: Here's where spending all of that time starts to pay off. Summoned monsters last for 2 minutes. Master: And you thought the last one was good? All summoned items and mosters cost 1/2 as much to cast.

 

Mysticism: Bind Souls, Absorb Magic, Reflect Magic, Dispel Magic, and Detect Life. This skill confused me in Morrowind and still does. Although I understand that the game no longer needs a Teleport spell, it would still be nice to have another travel option. And for those of us who don't actaully use the fast travel, Teleport would be a more valid option for getting around. Most of the spells in the school are useful, particularly at higher levels when monsters start using nastier spells. Absorb and Reflect are really useful to have when approaching a fireball slinging Daedroth, but I really am never satisfyed with using this school unless I have the patience to develop it. It's missing something, but I'm not sure what exaclty, it feels incomplete, and that makes me sad. Novice: Soul gems explode when you try to trap a soul in them, releasing a ghost for you to fight. Apprentice: Dispelling on self has a chance to increase the duration of whatever is affecting you by 50%. Journeymen: No penalties, detect life increases the damage you do by a % of your skill level (5-10%). Expert: You no longer have to carry soul gems on your person, when you trap a soul, it solidifies into a soul gem of its respective monster level (Petty, Common, etc.). Master: Reflecting a spell doubles it's strength and duration on the caster. Absorbing spells doubles the amount of Magika you recover.

 

Restoration: Heal yourself, suck skills and attributes out of others, and cure diseases. This, like Alteration, is a must have for all Mages (at least the Mage characters I make). Not only does it give you supreme healing powers, but it houses, in my opinion, the best offensive spell in the entire game: Absorb Health. It's so broken I almost can't stand how broken it is. Not only do you suck the life out of your enemy, you give it to yourself. Making whatever huge axe based power attack against you utterly useless. With the regeneration of Magika in Oblivion, this skill is much better than in Morrowind. Although I haven't experimented with the Absorb spells beyond Health, I suspect that the attribute sucking is quite useful, especially Willpower and Intelligence since their effects are immediate. I don't have many more criticisms of the school, on to the ranks. Novice: you can't tell the difference between healing yourself or hurting yourself, % chance to cast drain health instead of heal, casting cure disease might infect you with another one, and absorb spells might work the other way around (you donate some skills to an enemy). Apprentice: You have a hard time absorbing, you suffer from the chance of absorbing something other than what the spell you are casting absorbs (i.e. absorbing a marksman skill instead of health). Journeymen: No penalties; adds a bonus to all absorb spells based on a % of your character's maximum magika. Expert: Heal spells are twice as strong. Master: Restore spells cost no Magika

 

Alchemy: Make potions, eat plants, make poisons. This was one of the most fun schools in Morrowind and I'm glad to say this tradition continues in Oblivion. The addition of being able to poison a weapon is an imaginative implementation of the skill, since those damage potions were basically useless in Morrowind. While the mastery skill is rather unique, the lesser rank advancements lack some imagination. Though I don't remember exactly how it worked in Morrowind, I'm pretty sure how well you could identify plants was mostly dependent on your skill level in conjuction with your intelligence level. Let's bring that back. Now as far as updating rank advancements, this one for some reason seems to be the most amusing. Novice: you have no idea what's what. You have a % chance to misidentify a plant species, so that when you eat something with one effect, it might result in a different effect. You can't make potions, you have no idea how to use the proper equipment. Apprentice: While you gain the ability to successfully identify plants, you still can't use the proper equipment and can't make potions. Sucks to be you. Journeymen: Finally, you've made it to the part where you can make something. By this time, you can identify all of the effects on plants; let's face it, it's been a tough climb so far. Expert: Not too original, but delicious nonetheless. You gain a % bonus to both the strength and duration of your posions and potions based on your alchemy score. Master: Make a potion from a single ingredient. You master the ability to apply poisons to arrows and weapons, increasing the number of uses to 3.

 

That's all for Magic. This section seemed a little less imaginative than Combat and more monotonous considering the format. But I hope at least these suggestions will bear some weight on how modders think about the ways in which to change what the existing magic schools can do. Next time I'll finish off the section about skills with Stealth, then take a wee break, then start reviewing the birthsigns and races.

[modernlegend]

hmm, view count may not work, but I'm sure people will take the time to read such a well structured and cogent... rant? I'm not quite sure what else to call it, but theres certainly a lot of points there that I agree with, particularly a hell of a lot of your points on the rank system.

[o-seven]

I'm reading it too, very informative - keep going!

 

But hey thanateros, a comment on athletics= I can't figure out if you're bashing it because it's unrealistic and unimaginative or because it's bad strictly from a "power-player" point of view: Isn't it a pretty useful skill already because you level up a lot? (Just some feedback, I should point out I don't even have Oblivion yet)

[thanateros]

Whew, I'm in the last 1/3 of this skill review. I would like to encourage people reading this to react to what I have to say in some thoughtful way. I really like the compliments, but this just is one person's perspective in how I see the way in which the skill interact with the game environment and how they often make logical sense. I'd love to hear others' thoughts on this subject, but please, let's not limit this to "Beth should have done this instead". I recognize my own tendencies to follow this trend, but the point I'm really trying to emphasize is the imaginative qualities that a game of this calibur are capable of. With that said, onto Stealth.

 

This set of skills, moreso than either Combat or Magic, stands alone in being the most interesting array of misfit abilities to fall under the category of Stealth; I absolutely LOVE this set of skills. It lacks the shortblade skill, which, if included, would allow Stealth to stand alone as the most likely candidate for me to make a character entirely out of and be pleased with how diverse the skills are.

 

Security: Pick locks using picks. Extremely straight forward. I had a hard time wrestling with the implementation of this skill in the game because it's so narrow, but Oblivion deffinitely creates a place for it to have an incredible amount of use. This is exactly what I'm talking about when I refer to how useful a skill is, that how the skill functions within the game environment is the guage by which I figure out their importance to the gaming experience. Security is at the top of my list for just this reason. Although the Ranks lack incredible imagination, they logically fit with how the skill gets used in the game, so I have no qualms about them. Lockpicks all being the same is something worth exploring. My suspicion is that if different qualities of pick were added to the game, they would basically do the same thing as the ranks. In this light, the ranks should then improve the character's ability to navigate the actual lockpick, so that higher ranks would equal slower rises and falls in the lock. While this is simply a different perspective, I don't personally think that it needs to be implemented. As it stands, there are other priorities in skill changes to be made. The lockpick game and auto function are actaully one of the logical highlights of the game for me. It makes perfect sense that at a certain skill level, your expertise at being able to pick a difficulty of lock becomes automatic, in a more rule oriented frame it means that a higher skill level equates to a low level of failure. But where this skill really shines is in the game. I like the fact that regardless of your skill, you can attempt to pick any difficulty of lock. This reflects the % chance of failure I was just mentioning; without the level of skill to be able to successfully pick a hard lock, the fact you can still try to use the skill beyond your character's assigned capacity adds a potent dimesion to the game: that the player determines to what extent the character is capable of perfoming in a situation, and if given the choice, determination towards a task can still produce success. Beautiful.

 

Sneak: Hide in shadows, backstab, and pick pockets. The improvement of this skill from Morrowind to Oblivion is so astronomical that it resides in a different universe. Shadow based stealth enhances a element of realism that engages your much more with the environment and mindset of thieving than in Morrowind. But with the shortcommings of the weapons classes, this skill looses its lure, but I assign that blame more on the imbalance between the weapon skills than sneak. The controls for it are far superior than Morrowind; no more button mashing, simply click, and you're in sneak mode. The only thing I would change is if you were spotted, you automatically stand up, more as a logistics issue than anything. Making the decision to go out of sneak mode doesn't make sense to me; if I'm spotted, more than likely, my character will want to stand up to either fight or hightail out of there. The Ranks are good, but somewhat shaky. The Expert and Journeymen benefits seem awfully similar. The weight of the boots not affecting detection is nice, but I think no matter what, if you're wearing heavier armor, your chances of being detected are higher. There are certain inevitable drawbacks while sneaking and wearing armor. It's more a condition of the equipment you're using than your profiency in your sneak ability. It's the difference between subject (the player character) and environment (armor the character is wearing). The master rank is sweet, though from what I've heard it doesn't work, so that needs fixing. The journeymen should be another damage multiplier, since the level of difficulty in this game at normal settings seems quite high, this skill more than any other needs to be balanced in such a way that characters dependent on it should get the benefits from putting so much of their strategy into it.

 

Acrobatics: Jump and Fall. I've never liked the animation and the completely unrealistic heights that high level acrobats had in both Morrowind and Oblivion. When I think of Acrobatics, I don't think just of jumping, but also of flips, tumbles and rolls. Too bad only jumping is in the game. This is the skill I would rely on to keep me out of harm's way if I chose not to use armor, and the roll evasion is a great addition, it would be even better if in subsequent ranks more acrobatic feats were added instead of just being able to jump higher. With this in mind, the paired attribute should be Agility, it makes no sense that Speed is what determines how acrobatic your character is. The ranks would look something like this (keep in mind, jump height/distance remains constant). Novice: when falling have a % chance to get loose your footing on the landing and fall down. Apprentice: footing becomes stable and you roll to absorb the impact from falling. Journeymen: gain the roll evasion feat and can attack while performing an acrobatic feat. Expert: Gain the flip feat, which slightly increases how high you can jump, if you flip into a enemy, gives you the chance to knock them over and disarm them. Master: Gain the Climb feat, allowing you to scale near vertical surfaces.

 

Light armor: Wear light class armor, but for some reason, speed is the paired attribute. Sorry Beth, screw balance, Agility belongs to this skill and you know it. At least it wasn't moved into the Combat section, that's all I really have to say. The ranks seem like they should fall into the category of other skills working in tandem with light armor. For example, the increase of the rating by 50% at master seems like something a Master Armorer would be able to do for all pieces of equipment. While I'm writing this, I'm convinced that there shouldn't be any Rank improvements for either of the armor skills. It's difficult to logically assume that the player character, due to their high skill, somehow manages to make the armor rating go up by 50%. These ranks don't consider that it is the CHARACTER that should be the determining factor in how a skill develops, and I just can't make that connection between the character and the equipment they're wearing. This then bring us to issue of the armor rating itself. Well, logically, all armor is the same, so your armor skill shouldn't improve the armor rating somehow at higher levels. I know this would defeat the skill completely, but the other side of that coin would be, if you don't have it as a major skill, you simply aren't able to wear the armor. This argument probably needs more working, and some sort of rank system should be developed, but more in terms of, what can the character physically do while wearing this armor better than heavy armor. I would guess that it would have something to do with reducing the penalties for wearing it, with only minor bonuses at the expert and master levels.

 

Marksman: shoot stuff with bows and arrows. This is another one of those weapon skills that somehow has the character doing less damage with it at higher levels. While I accept that the more experience you have with a weapon, the better you are with it, I don't think this directly translates to doing more damage. The bows and arrows didn't change, only the character. The ranks seem fine to me. Logically, if you are a Master a marksman, you could place your shots in ways that debilitate your enemy and reduce their effectiveness. Those don't need to be changed. I'm also urked by how useless bows become at higher levels. It seems that early on the skill is promising, but by the time you're facing minotaurs and Daedroths, you'd be better off trying to swing with a staff. This needs to be smoothed out, such that the damage fluctiates and the skill is just as effective when the character is level 60 than it is at 6. Even though enemies might have more health, your skill should reflect your character's consideration of what it takes to be an effective bowman.

 

Mercantile: This is a really fun skill, and ranks high on my list of skills that make the game interesting. While I would like to see that shops you invest in actually give you a return of their profits (how normal investments work) the idea that you can increase their money store for selling back items you bring in from adventuring is quite ingenuous. The master rank doesn't make sense at all, just because a character has high mercantilism doesn't mean every other vendor in the world somehow increases their wealth. Cut this out and add in the ability to make money off of stores you invest in, although I'm not sure how the AI interacts with vendors, making this more of Beth's responsibility to implement. If they buy from stores, you should see some of that money if you invest your faith that the store would be successful.

 

Speechcraft: Improve or reduce NPC's dispositions towards you. The minigame makes no sense whatsoever. It doesn't add anything to the gaming environment. Another implementation of this skill would have the player character choose a "Converse" option and depending on your skill score either improve or reduce their disposition based on the content of the conversation and how well the character is at holding conversations. Morrowind wins over Oblivion in this skill. This incarnation adds nothing but annoying sessions of spinning a disposition wheel. Return the options to represent your character in an open ended way, like in Morrowind, so that the intent of how your character wants to interact with an NPC can be reinforced by how the player wants their character to interact with the social environment. The ranks would need a complete overhaul, but for that to happen the minigame needs to be removed. Novice: you're socially inept and unable to distinguish one social cue from another. Chances are, you're pissing everyone off. Apprentice: You have a stronger sense of the spoken word, but can't convey you ideas in a cohesive way such that others can understand you. Although they're no longer pissed, most people are indifferent towards you. Journeymen: You have more control over how you convey your thoughts to others, and are strarting to understand how to use social cues in your favor, although you can converse, it's not extremely effective (can only raise disposition by 10). Expert: You are clear and articulate, and sensitive to how to use social cues to your advantage while conversing with others. While conversing you raise or lower others' dispositions by 20 (depending on the intent of what you're saying i.e. Coersion, Theaten, Joke etc.). Master: When you speak, others flock to hear your voice. Completely aware of social cues, paraverbal empathy, and command of spoken words, your ideas are artfully articulated through your speech. When talking to others, you max their disposition towards you (either positively or negatively, depending on your intent).

 

That's it, no more skills to review, but for one final act I'm going to create a character based on the usefulness of any skill as they already exist in the game, without changes:

 

Security

Armorer

Block

Mercantile

Alchemy

Sneak

Marksman

 

This is based entirely how well I think the skills function in the context of the game enviroment and their usefulness overall. It's missing a melee weapon and some armor, but in all honesty, those still need the most work. This character would certainly be more of a thief, using their knowledge in Alchemy to create poisons for arrows. Armorer doesn't really fit, except to make sure the bow is in fine tuned condition. I would probably use a short sword for a parry weapon, thus the usefulness of the block skill. Mercantile is well done overall, and though it takes patience to level, seems worth it in Oblivion. I hope you enjoyed reading. There's more to come I'm sure.

 

But hey thanateros, a comment on athletics= I can't figure out if you're bashing it because it's unrealistic and unimaginative or because it's bad strictly from a "power-player" point of view: Isn't it a pretty useful skill already because you level up a lot? (Just some feedback, I should point out I don't even have Oblivion yet)

 

More for the 'power-player' aspect. I'm not convinced that having a skill that allows you to always be leveling is a good thing for the game. I have no problem with the skill itself, and I think Athletics is a useful skill to have in the game, but the way it's implemented makes it such that there's no effort that goes into increasing a character's ability to use it. Better Ranks I think would fix this problem all around, so the skill no longer is by default the skill people use when they want to run/swim faster and farther, but a skill that enhances the gameplay experience that offers the player a unique way to experience the game, that if they didn't have athletics, would be completely different.

[batesmotel34]

For some reason the view count doesn't work, so I can't even tell if people are reading this. I might just be writing to myself and a sliver of the population on the forums, and it's to those dedicated readers I would like to segue into lambasting the magic skills.

 

Destruction: Throw fireballs, shoot lightning out of your hand, and cause hypothermia. These are the most obvious skills for this school, but I find the more useful in this game are actaully the Disintegrate skills. Given how rediculous road bandits become at higher levels (dumb, by the way) I always have to have a massive disentigrate weapon/armor spell at the ready. Certainly, as is the case with most schools, this one got much more useful since Morrowind, and now that players conceivably can play as Mages, this skill certainly ranks as mediocre when compared to some of the others. The ranks for all of the magic schools inhibit character development; I thought this engine was supposed to promote character development, oh well, not that I'm overly impressed with it anyway. Destruction houses some rather powerful spells, but given the lack of a coherent Mana progression engine (like that of the relationship between Endurance and Health gained per level) Mage characters get the short end of the melee deficient staff. The idea that you need to have a certain rank to gain access to spells whose mana costs are so rediculous you probably couldn't cast them more than 2 times, ranks high on the list of things that stunt a cohesive and interactive character development engine for magic users. Instead, as I argued in with respect to weapons and the block skill, each school needs to have rank advancements that open up the uniqueness of the skill, not a limitation on what you character can do from level 1. Consider that the amount of magika you have will affect what spells you have, so naturally, higher level spells are unavailable for use by lower level characters. WOW!!! Here are some possible rank implentations (Modder pens at the ready). Novice: well you're novice, suseptible to having your spells fail and cast on yourself. It would make the game much more interesting if a % of failure resulted in some mishap that cause permanent scarring. Welcome to the world of below average, the only place you can go from here is up. Apprentice: you're starting to get the hang of things, so naturally you won't kill yourself when you cast a spell, but you still have a hard time grasping how to finesse your spells, therefore, your character's on target spells have a chance to go wildly off course. I hope you have that staff ready to block with. Journeymen: now that you have some actual skill with your spells, not only do those penalties go away, the damage bonus you receive is a % relative to the amount of magika you have left (like weapon damage and stamina). Expert: So close to being oh-so-sweet, Radius effects are doubled, yum. Master: your are supreme in your ability to cut through the defenses of your foes, their natural resistances to your elemental (fire, lightning, ice) destruction spells are null (magical shields still reduce damage). Overpowered perhaps? Who cares, I'm a master of destruction, don't even try and stop me.

 

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Conjuration: Summon armor, weapons, and monsters of all sorts. Well, so long as you have like 1000 magika. The huge shortcomming in this skill is 1) how rediculously expensive the spells are (both Mana and Coin wise) and 2) they all last for about the time it takes for a summoned monster to engage in combat with an NPC. Well that makes it pretty much useless from my perspective. Better save up so you can get that constant effect summon rat ring you've always wanted. I've always enjoyed the idea of conjuration, but it's never met my expectations. Oblivion made conjuration worse than in Morrowind, far worse. While I agree that the higher level summon spells should cost a lot, without a system for Mages to advance their maximum Mana, this skill becomes the first to suffer the effects. With this, the rank updates are more straightforward, since this skill is almost unplayable when considering the amount of resources you need to have in order to use it. Novice: Any summon creature you cast could last for only 1 second then disappear, HAHA. Apprentice: Just you try casting a summoned creature and see what happens. Summoned monsters have % chance to turn around and attack you...fair enough, they just might not like you. Journeymen: Well, you aren't yet in the upper tier of what it takes to be a summoning machine, penalties are gone. Although nothing happens to your monsters, your summoned items receive and additional 50% armor or damage bonus. Expert: Here's where spending all of that time starts to pay off. Summoned monsters last for 2 minutes. Master: And you thought the last one was good? All summoned items and mosters cost 1/2 as much to cast.

 

I'm definitely enjoying your review so far and hope you will continue. I don't agree with all your conclusions but I have definitely enjoyed reading your views.

 

My first character which is currently about level 20 is a Breton Witch Hunter class with the Mage sign. Being Breton with the Mage sign gives me double the normal magicka level if I recall properly so that may have saved me from some of the concerns you've expressed about spells requiring too much Magicka. As a low level character I made heavy use of the lowest level conjuration summon skeleton spell. It is one of the summons with a longer duration than many (40 seconds?). I didn't find that the summoned skeleton (since you can only have one summoned creature of any type at a time, unlike Morrowind) was a killer but I did find that it was a good way to tie up opponents' attention. I could then use Marksman with a bow and some ranged destruction spells without having to fight hand to hand with opponents. to do much of the damage while the skeleton was meleeing the opponent(s). Even using some low level destruction spells I found that my magicka regenerated fast enough that I would be back to full by the time the summoned skeleton spell expired. As I've gotten higher skills in Conjuration and Destruction I've continued to use this combination although at this point I do tend to rely more on the damage that the summoned creature will do as opposed to my destruction and marksman skills. The creatures I use most commonly for summoning at level 20 with a Conjuration skill at 95 (and intelligence at 100, Wisdom in the 60's) are Daedroth and Clannfear. (Clannfear are fast which is sometimes a big benefit, Daedroth are generally tougher and will close to melee much sooner than a Spider Daedra. Dremora were a favorite at lower levels around 8-10.) For a laugh see my account of running away from Umbra while summoning Daedroths and the Clannfears (since Umbra was a bit fast for the Daedroths) to bash her.

 

I'm not convinced that destruction spells by themselves are reliable enough to get by on since I do find that magicka does tend to run out too quickly when fighting multiple opponents (but my destruction skill is also in the 60 range or so compared to my Conjuration so that is a factor in the relative effectiveness). Something I do like is that at my current destruction level (and it may have been true at lower levels) is that the touch spells can also force your opponent back so they have to close again. This evens up some of the discrepancy in speed of attack with many melee weapons vs spell casting times and magicka regeneration.