Am I... Missing something?

[zenno]

Okay this may be a long post but I need to vent a bit in hopes that you all can help me out with a little prob I've been having. I've had Oblivion for quite awhile now, But I get the feeling that I am missing something about the game. I'm not sure if its how I play the game possibly, or what, but I tend to find myself not knowing what to do.

 

Since I got the game, I've made so many new characters to try them out, as with sooo many skills I wanted to try them all out, but the thing is I dont think I've ever gotten above level 10. I tend to go in game, my favorite character types have been stealthy characters, and I find the most fun I have is when I just rob the living daylights out of wherever I go. Even on my characters who arent stealthy thats usually what I end up doing in the end.

 

I dont like the main campaign very much, too much of the same thing, so on all my new chars i skip most that, and the theifs guild i just do up till I get the fence and dont want to do the rest again, so I usually just roam randomly picking up herbs, exploring the random cave, and robbing evrything as I said earlier. I sometimes do other quests I run in to but it dont seem that I get an amazing amount of those.

 

I've never liked the auto-scaling and levels of enemys, so I have almost always used the O3 modular version. I know O3 adds other things (weapons quests etc) but have no clue where those are really lol.

 

I surprisingly find money making pretty tight. Its pretty rare I find something to steal that actually worth some decent value, and I dont know where I could sell something really valueable anyway.

 

Another problem I have is the leveling. I dont like having to grind skills I dont really need, before i get my major skills and level, just to get my attribute points. I seen some mod (some name with a G's) Leveling Mod, which was supposed to be a better format for the leveling, but it did other things like you could auto set your level etc, which I wasnt sure if it would ruin my gaming experience, though it may be a good idea with all the characters I make. Would the leveling mods possibly help with this problem?

 

While I like the fact that the world is so open and I can do anything, I seem to find myself getting stuck with "What IS there to do?" Randomly roaming and pillaging everywhere for low value goods gets boring after awhile, and I dont want to repeat the same quest lines over and over. Do things change if I go higher level or something? Am I missing a big part of the game somewhere and dont even know it? I just cant shake the feeling that I'm missing something here.

 

I seek some more action. Yeah I get the occasional 2-3 bandit partys, and in dungeons its fun to sneaky around and sneak shot the few enemys I run in to, but is there anywhere I can go aside from closing the oblivion gates to have some real action?

 

I'm not sure if my mod selection has something to do with it or not. I have quite a few mods, but I skipped alot that would add new areas or locations to the game because I wanted to experience the original game before I added stuff. I have alot of things to enhance the gameplay without adding much new - character selection choices, O3, some weapons/armors, attack & hide, waterfix, and other then that mostly loads of graphical mods. Is there really so little to do in the main world? Should I give up on trying to "Experience the original game" and just search out content mods for something to do? and if so, can anyone give me some reccomendations?

 

Also I usually dont like to cheat while I play, which is also partly why I never used the leveling mods. Also is the reason I never found a mod that gives me a fence with unlimited money lol. Is oblivion meant to be played like that though, or will it enhance my gameplay experience? It makes me wonder because quite a few mods I tried had some items that seemed completely overpowering, but are items that strong actually needed for anything? And with items that strong, going around killing everything in sight, wouldnt you run out of things to kill without them respawning? Or do dungeons respawn after a certain amount of time?

 

Sorry again for the lengthy post. I love Obliv when I'm doing something, so I hope someone has some answers that could help me found out what it is I have to do.. or what I am missing.

[Abramul]

My recommendation would be: Give Morrowind a try.

 

The gameplay is, for the most part, better, lots of stuff to do, excellent replay value, and, IF you manage to exhaust the official content, numerous high-quality quest mods. There are even mods that add whole new areas, some of which are larger than the original area.

 

I don't believe I would be exaggerating to say that, with each new character, I've come across several things I never knew existed.

 

As for the atmosphere, you can get some idea of it here, although I would recommend avoiding reading too far if you plan on playing.

[skullmosher]

Zenno, I play the same way you do (mostly). I'll give you some suggestions, however Abramul makes a very good point. If you want a world to explore you can't go wrong with Morrowind. I think there are a few thousand hours of content with all the mods. I played Morrowind for two years and I STILL haven't gotten into the two expansions. Odd....

 

Anyway, about Oblivion. The loot does not start to get good until at least Level 15 (although various mods alter this). My characters usually have all my most used skills as majors so I tend to level up alarmingly fast. Scouring the various dungeons is great for loot, plus there are a few side-quests that you can pick up along the way (such as the Ayleid Statue quest).

 

But to answer your question more specifically: There isn't a helluva lot to do in Cyrodiil. It's mostly the same everywhere (with minor variations in the herbs you can pick). TES4:OB is the worlds most advanced flower picking simulator. srsly.

 

Or just try Morrowind....

[ninja_lord666]

I fully agree, and I'm saying this from experience. Oblivion sucks. I have found most all locations. I have done most all quests (I haven't done the fighter's guild, because it conflicts with my character's type). I have amassed over 300 hours of gameplay (spread out through several characters). Most of it was boring: doing the same handful of quests, exploring the same dungeons for the same loot, walking from on end of Cyrodiil to the other...seeing the same things. Oblivion is the best looking dungeon stomp game. All you do is look at scenery and kill things...I miss Morrowind. What happened Bethesda?

[DeusXMachina]

concerning the leveling: use an appropriate mod. I'm very content with KOBU.

 

Concerning OOO: RTFM. Read the messages hanging on the castle walls. You can't miss the quests and additional content. And you _will_ get the action you seek, maybe more than that (especially with a lvl 10 char *g*)

 

Concerning "not knowing what to do": Well, it's a RPG. First think of the personality of your char, then choose the skills, then play it. There's so much possibilities. Play a collector: Choose a housemod with lots of storage and display areas an go hunting armors, weapons, books, jewellery, what you like. Play a necrohunting magician, become archmage of the guild and smoke out every cave with necromancers on the whole continent. Go study daedric alchemy and make the most powerful potions just out of the remains of Daedra. Apart from that, you could just go and talk to people, opposite to ninja_lord I think the quests in OB are quite fine and many.

 

Morrowind for sure is a fantastic game, in many details even better than OB. But imo in MW you're even more endangered of getting lost in the pure number of possibilities, it's far easier to break quests, and you have to read tons and tons of text in order to understand what you have to do.