You know what really grinds my gears?

[The_Vyper]

Enemies prioritizing your horse over you. What the hell do bandits have against horses?

I can understand this, actually. A bandit wants to kill you and loot your corpse, which is kind of hard to do if you're riding away on a horse. So, kill the getaway vehicle, then kill and loot the victim.

 

Or the one guy who yells that Kvatch is under attack, then runs back in the general direction of Kvatch?

He runs to Anvil. You can find him there later on.

[Ferryt]

Case in point: Enemies prioritizing your horse over you.

 

Not just your horse. I noticed when I was experimenting with companions (that was before I gave up on companions, but that's another ground gear), that opponents would attack my companions, whether NPCs or creatures, and completely ignore me. I suspect this is built into the game engine, though, and is probably behavior that couldn't be fixed in a mod without the use of continually-running scripts.

 

As for companions grinding my gears, they all do. Dogs, horses, NPCs, even NPCs who are following you around and aren't your companions. Ever tried to sneak around inside a cave with the Orc Adventurer around? You might as well just stay where you are until he gets killed or wipes out all the enemies (very unlikely -- he's not that good). How many times have you had a companion or random NPC jump in front of a targeted spell just as you cast it, or step in front of a sword strike, or an arrow you just shot? There is NOTHING you can do to prevent this and it seems to happen only after you've actually committed yourself to the action and can't stop it. You'd almost think that Bethesda specifically programmed this "feature" into the game to keep you from getting through the whole game with a clean record. I've disavowed any inclination I might have had at one time to use any companion mods, and have just about given up on horses. I might try a companion mod that's more of a dating/romance mod where the companion isn't even meant to follow you around, but stays at home and does the dishes until I get back from adventuring, but that's about it. Basically, my attitude with regard to NPCs is "If you help me I'll have to kill you." (Since I probably will wind up doing so anyway)

[WeissYohji]

Enemies prioritizing your horse over you. What the hell do bandits have against horses?

I can understand this, actually. A bandit wants to kill you and loot your corpse, which is kind of hard to do if you're riding away on a horse. So, kill the getaway vehicle, then kill and loot the victim.

 

That's most illogical. You'd think they'd want to kill you and take the horse for themselves!

 

Also, why don't they put horse combat in the game? What do they think is going to happen?

 

Then there's the one guy in the Arena who gets all butthurt after you beat Agronak gro-Malog and become the Grand Champion. I can understand that Agronak was his bestie, but it was bound to happen at some point! If nobody else got to him first, he'd have to kill Agronak himself! What, was he gonna go to Owyn and say, "Hey, I don't want the Grand Champion to fight anymore?"

[documn]

Case in point: Enemies prioritizing your horse over you.

 

Not just your horse. I noticed when I was experimenting with companions (that was before I gave up on companions, but that's another ground gear), that opponents would attack my companions, whether NPCs or creatures, and completely ignore me. I suspect this is built into the game engine, though, and is probably behavior that couldn't be fixed in a mod without the use of continually-running scripts.

Yeah, as far as I can tell, this behavior is hard-coded somewhere. This is the number one reason why I thought conjuration was overpowered in the vanilla game: enemies would always target the summoned creature, leaving me free to kill them without risk to myself.

 

I made a mod called Stickier Enemy Targetting to try and fix this problem. It does use a continually runnning script, but I haven't noticed a performance hit (and neither has anyone else, based on the sparse feedback I've gotten so far). If you're interested there's a link in my signature.

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Another thing that grinds my gears is how there are a ton of locked chests and doors, but the keys to these locks don't exist anywhere in the game.

[WeissYohji]

Case in point: Enemies prioritizing your horse over you.

 

Not just your horse. I noticed when I was experimenting with companions (that was before I gave up on companions, but that's another ground gear), that opponents would attack my companions, whether NPCs or creatures, and completely ignore me. I suspect this is built into the game engine, though, and is probably behavior that couldn't be fixed in a mod without the use of continually-running scripts.

Yeah, as far as I can tell, this behavior is hard-coded somewhere. This is the number one reason why I thought conjuration was overpowered in the vanilla game: enemies would always target the summoned creature, leaving me free to kill them without risk to myself.

 

I made a mod called Stickier Enemy Targetting to try and fix this problem. It does use a continually runnning script, but I haven't noticed a performance hit (and neither has anyone else, based on the sparse feedback I've gotten so far). If you're interested there's a link in my signature.

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Another thing that grinds my gears is how there are a ton of locked chests and doors, but the keys to these locks don't exist anywhere in the game.

 

I've been looking for a mod that fixes the enemy targeting! Thanks! ^_^

 

Locked chests and doors with missing keys...well, why require keys for them if they're not in the game?

 

Harvesting stuff: How do you fail to pick up a leaf? There is no reason for this, Bethesda! Did you not think anyone would bother harvesting fruit and leaves in the damn game?

 

Bandits' armor: Ignoring certain overhaul mods, how do those lowlife bandits end up with glass, mithril, elven, or daedric armor? Under the old adage that crime doesn't pay, you'd think they'd only be able to get iron, leather, or fur armor!

 

Banks: We had them in Daggerfall. Why didn't they put them in Oblivion, too?

[Ferryt]

documn

 

• 
  I have your "Stickier Enemy Targeting" mod. It's on the list of ones I intend to install after I get my new computer so I can actually run all the mods I'd like to. As a player who prefers play stealth-based characters who try to stay out of direct combat if at all possible, I always have Conjuration as one of my primary skills. Depending upon the situation, though, I would prefer the enemy to be concentrating upon me rather than my conjured ally (perhaps because the conjured creature is low-powered compared to the opponent), rather than serving as a distraction, or even my primary "weapon" in the fight. It annoys the fluff out of me when my conjured creatures go down in one or two hits because it's not possible to divide the attention of an enemy.
   
  Regarding your issue with the lack of keys for all the chests and drawers, considering how many thousands of such items can be present in the game as clones of just a few basic items, it would be asking too much of a developer (or modder) to create unique instances of these items so that they could be opened only by unique keys, which would also have to be created and linked to those objects. Besides, that's what the Security skill and lockpicks (or unlock spells) are for. Honestly, with just a bit of practice picking locks isn't all that difficult, anyway.

 

WeissYohji

 

• Your issue about failing to harvest a leaf isn't entirely without issues, itself. IRL, I'm a herbalist and I collect much of my own components. With some plants (not all) you have to be pretty picky about what leaves you collect and not every plant will yield useful leaves every time you visit it. Admittedly, such instances are very rare, and I happen to agree that from a game perspective, if the plant is there you should be able to collect anything you can actually see, whether it's a mushroom cap, leaf, or flower -- and how can you NOT collect a Morning Glory root? Are some of these plants rootless? And when you do collect the root, why doesn't the plant die? This is yet another of the "unfinished" (or perhaps ill-considered) systems in the game. It would not have been that much more difficult to, for instance, have two versions of each plant -- one possessing the collectible part and one which doesn't. Harvest a mushroom and the plant disappears (or at least the fruiting body that you can see above ground). That's a no-brainer. Harvest flowers and the plant is left with just leaves. Harvest leaves and ... well, it depends upon the plant. Some you harvest the entire plant and some you just pick and choose. Basically, it could have been done a lot better.
   
  And, yeah ... I've ranted about bandit armor with respect to the leveling system in various places, myself. If bandits were getting the best glass, ebony, elven, and Daedric armor and weapons do you really think they'd still be making a living stealing from people and risking getting killed? You have to be pretty wealthy to afford that kind of thing, and if you're getting it as loot, somewhere, then it makes no sense that you aren't selling it and getting wealthy. Wealthy bandits need to look into retirement, if they really expect to live into old age and be able to enjoy their wealth.

[Hjorlwulf]

Just joined this Forum - long time Morrowind player, didn't like Oblivion when it came out (no levitation, horses but no mounted combat - a long list) but now getting back into it for the sake of my grandson - age 10. Before I read this I posted a new topic - my biggest beef on the immersion front is the total lack of a viable military in the center of a supposed mighty empire. Career path in Morrowind - many forts, training, weapons, the whole shebang - Oblivion has abandoned forts that are centers of evil, etc. VERY disappointing, Bethesda. I expected Rome - I got New Jersey ....

[antonkr]

To antonkr: I can see glass arrows being of use, but bows? No way, Bethesda. It can't possibly work.

Well considering that glass is pretty much like a metal but more durable and light why not?

[WeissYohji]

Just joined this Forum - long time Morrowind player, didn't like Oblivion when it came out (no levitation, horses but no mounted combat - a long list) but now getting back into it for the sake of my grandson - age 10. Before I read this I posted a new topic - my biggest beef on the immersion front is the total lack of a viable military in the center of a supposed mighty empire. Career path in Morrowind - many forts, training, weapons, the whole shebang - Oblivion has abandoned forts that are centers of evil, etc. VERY disappointing, Bethesda. I expected Rome - I got New Jersey ....

 

I can understand levitation being removed, seeing as how the AI can't handle it and with cities now being separate cells. But there was no excuse to not put horse combat in the game.

 

Looking at your post, what does grind my gears is that the Imperial military doesn't seem to care about the forts. Instead of cleaning them up and repurposing them, they just let them go to hell and become hangouts for rebels, toughs, thugs, and the odd goblin tribe. WTF?

 

The Gray Fox. If nobody knows who he is, how can he be wanted for tax evasion? You can't tax someone if you don't know who they are!

 

Why is there only one bookstore in the Imperial City? It's supposed to be a bleeding huge city; you'd think there'd be more bookstores around! It's not like First Edition's a corporate chain bookstore that elbowed out the competition!

 

Imperial City. Why such a lame name for the capital of Tamriel? Surely Bethesda could have come up with a much better name! That's like calling Washington, D.C., "Presidential City" or London "Royal City"! At least name it after some important historical figure (Alessia, Reman Cyrodiil, Tiber Septim, etc.), or use whatever name the Ayleids used when they first built it!

[Megatarius]

To antonkr: I can see glass arrows being of use, but bows? No way, Bethesda. It can't possibly work.

Well considering that glass is pretty much like a metal but more durable and light why not?

 

Glass does not bend. It breaks and shatters.