Just bought PC Oblivion

[Stemin]

Hi all.

 

I'm relatively new to the board. Been lurking for a minute. I feel silly making a new topic over stuff that has been covered, but I was reading the pinned stuff and they seem pretty strict about not posting in someone else's thread and not resurrecting old threads....

 

Anyways... I've been playing Skyrim since late Nov on PS3, and I bought Oblivion in December for XBox 360. I had some trouble getting into it after playing Skyrim. It's not the graphics so much as it is the interface and the gameplay. I can stand all the clunky menus in Oblivion when everything seems so much more streamlined in skyrim. The map is just way better in skyrim as well. I would love to find a mod that makes Oblivions maps and menus more like Skyrim and I might do a request.

 

Anyways... I will get into modding eventually, but right now I just want to get into this game a bit. I just bought the PC version and I've got a question or two as well as some problems.

 

I've read in several places that Oblivion is just prone to crashing. Is that the end of the story? I mean is this something that occurs because of all the modding people do or is the game that unstable? I had heard that the modding community was doing a great job of fixing Bethesda's issues and I am hoping for stability first and foremost. I've already had the game crash on my laptop but I assumed it was because the laptop is only like a 1.8ghz processor. Then it crashed on my quad core desktop machine, but I got it running. My computer buddy said it was because my dual monitor setup was confusing it.

 

I would also like whatever advice anyone can give on setting up a joystick, specifically I have the official XBox 360 pc controller. Tried it last night and I can't seem to get the joysticks to work at all when I'm in the joystick button settings menu. The d-pad works and the 4 regular buttons. The bumpers and triggers don't work either.

 

Last but not least some gameplay advice would be appreciated. I haven't played a ton on the xbox, but the little I did play I was able to make it out of the first dungeon, locate the first person you're trying to find near the first oblivion gate, but I was finding the game very difficult. Also I can't seem to figure out how the leveling system works. Everything in skyrim is skill based.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Lanceor]

Hello Stemin, let's get the formalities out of the way first:

 

http://images.uesp.net//c/c4/Fishystick.jpg

 

...but I was reading the pinned stuff and they seem pretty strict about not posting in someone else's thread and not resurrecting old threads....

Don't worry, it's okay to post in others' threads and in old threads if it's appropriate, say if there's new information or you want to ask something closely related. It's mainly the ones who behave antisocially, hijack the thread or necro for fun that give the moderators ulcers.

 

I can stand all the clunky menus in Oblivion when everything seems so much more streamlined in skyrim. The map is just way better in skyrim as well. I would love to find a mod that makes Oblivions maps and menus more like Skyrim and I might do a request.

Skyrim uses a different technology for the menus and maps, so it would be quite hard to make something similar for Oblivion. Do check out DarNified UI though as it improves the UI considerable for the PC (many Oblivion players say it's much better than Skyrim's).

 

I've read in several places that Oblivion is just prone to crashing.

Yes and no. With so many different PC setups, some are very crash prone while others are not. This site is what I did to make my game exceptionally stable (<1 crash per 10 hours). The top tricks are probably to have as much RAM as possible, close all background processes, defrag your hard drive and to never use Alt-Tab. I'm also a fan of Windom Earle_s Oblivion Crash Prevention System but that requires a bit of setting up if you're new to the whole mod thing.

 

I would also like whatever advice anyone can give on setting up a joystick...

I don't use one, so sorry, I can't help there. ;)

 

Last but not least some gameplay advice would be appreciated... but I was finding the game very difficult. Also I can't seem to figure out how the leveling system works.

I adjust the difficulty slider for those times at the beginning of the game when enemies are a bit tough for me. After you get some more practise, you'll be more familiar with the game mechanics and the AI and it becomes much easier. One good idea is to use the Wait function to fully heal yourself after each fight.

 

IMHO, the default leveling system is horrendous. In two sentences, basically your major skills will level you up... but a combination of major and minor skills will determine what attribute bonuses you'll get on level-up. Which basically means if you focus only on your major skills as common sense would dictate, you probably won't get good attribute bonuses. Go figure.

 

Check out this thread that I posted today for some recommended starter mods and leveling mods.

 

Have fun!

[Striker879]

The unmodded game will be less crash prone than a heavily modded game, but yes, the PC version of Oblivion will crash from time to time. There are utilities you can use to mitigate the problem, but your own habits can also help alleviate the problem. First don't use quicksave. It is prone to leading to save game corruption and crashing. Don't overwrite saves ... always use a new slot in the saves menu. When your saves folder (found in Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Saves for Vista and Win 7 or Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Saves for Win XP) starts to get full either delete some older ones or archive them to a different folder (you'll know because the saves menu starts taking longer to open).

 

Oblivion is an old game, and so it doesn't take advantage of new hardware. A fast single or dual core will run the game better than a slower quad core. The quad core will help with some of those background tasks that are often running on modern machines (maybe, because the game really doesn't do well with other tasks running in the background). It's also not set up to natively run a game pad. If you search here on these forums you'll find threads discussing that issue.

 

A good source for gameplay information is the UESP Wiki. I find the wiki quests page an invaluable resource ... the unmodded game comes with plenty of 'issues' with the quests. The Oblivion Character Planner along with the UESP Leveling page will help get you up to speed on leveling in the vanilla game, and there are plenty of mods that have their own spin on 'fixing' that.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Striker879

[Stemin]

Hello Stemin, let's get the formalities out of the way first:

 

Wow. Someone who reads the whole post, addresses every point, and multiquotes to make it easy to read? You and me are gonna get along great. ;) (and that's not a knock on anyone below you)

 

Skyrim uses a different technology for the menus and maps, so it would be quite hard to make something similar for Oblivion. Do check out DarNified UI though as it improves the UI considerable for the PC (many Oblivion players say it's much better than Skyrim's).

 

I'll have to see what's available, but if someone's messing with the UI as you called it already, maybe it's possible. Maybe the PC is a bit better than my experience on XBox. I didn't mess with the PC version much when I realized my gamepad wasn't going to work, but everything I saw so far was similar. My main beef with Oblivion was the fact that everything took place in that little window, and I guess the way stuff is broken down for navigation. The window issue was more of a problem for me with the map. I don't require a 3d Map like skyrim, it just would nice to have it full screen so I can see more of what's going on. Some color wouldn't hurt either. I think I saw a mod for that. And maybe the navigation is something I'll get used to, but it just seemed like I was taking 2 steps to get to something for every 1 that I would do in skyrim. Once I start playing it more maybe I'll start posting specifics.

 

IMHO, the default leveling system is horrendous. In two sentences, basically your major skills will level you up... but a combination of major and minor skills will determine what attribute bonuses you'll get on level-up. Which basically means if you focus only on your major skills as common sense would dictate, you probably won't get good attribute bonuses. Go figure.

 

Check out this thread that I posted today for some recommended starter mods and leveling mods.

 

Have fun!

 

I think that one is pinned? Or at least it's close to the top. I did see that before. I read everything I could before my first post and I'll definitely go through those step by step before I get too big into posting questions, but I wanted to get some general stuff out of the way. Is it ok to post spoilers if you identify them or do you strictly have to post those in the spoiler forum? I guess.... I gave a general description above of how far along I am in the game, and in regards to the leveling, I kinda felt like I should be past level 1 by now. I thought I remember reading somewhere that you had to sleep in Oblivion to level up, but I did that and nothing. I need to look and see how close I am. I'm sure that's got to be in one of my menus. Is there like a starter guide somewhere for gameplay?

 

Thank you.

[Stemin]

The unmodded game will be less crash prone than a heavily modded game, but yes, the PC version of Oblivion will crash from time to time. There are utilities you can use to mitigate the problem, but your own habits can also help alleviate the problem. First don't use quicksave. It is prone to leading to save game corruption and crashing. Don't overwrite saves ... always use a new slot in the saves menu. When your saves folder (found in Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Saves for Vista and Win 7 or Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Saves for Win XP) starts to get full either delete some older ones or archive them to a different folder (you'll know because the saves menu starts taking longer to open).

 

Ok.. that's good stuff to know. I also read somewhere that if you're going to mod you shouldn't install oblivion in the program files directory? I read that AFTER I installed the game already... is that a big deal? Should I reinstall?

 

Oblivion is an old game, and so it doesn't take advantage of new hardware. A fast single or dual core will run the game better than a slower quad core. The quad core will help with some of those background tasks that are often running on modern machines (maybe, because the game really doesn't do well with other tasks running in the background). It's also not set up to natively run a game pad. If you search here on these forums you'll find threads discussing that issue.

 

I'm running a Q6600 quad core intel: http://ark.intel.com/products/29765

 

I have 16gb of Ram... IIRC its DDR3 Graphics card is a geforce 210.. I can't remember the specifics but I just bought it last year. I think it has an additional 1gb of DDR2.. I threw the box away and win 7 control panel isn't very helpful. I got a few terrabyte drives so HD space isn't an issue. When I installed on the laptop Oblivion said it couldn't identify my graphics card, so that might be why it crashes on my laptop. Seems likely.

 

A good source for gameplay information is the UESP Wiki. I find the wiki quests page an invaluable resource ... the unmodded game comes with plenty of 'issues' with the quests. The Oblivion Character Planner along with the UESP Leveling page will help get you up to speed on leveling in the vanilla game, and there are plenty of mods that have their own spin on 'fixing' that.

 

I'm pretty familiar with the two wiki's from my 500 hours I have logged in skyrim, so I'm good there. I just need to find a good startup guide that walks you through it so I don't have to sit there and read 15 pages of wiki before I can actually play the game.

 

I like to use wikia or wiki to look up quest bugs that weren't fixed and research different parts of lore.

 

Thank you again.

 

BTW, man am I gonna need to get used to the GUI on this board. That little dividing line before "reply, quote" etc. keeps throwing me off because it looks like it's part of the post below it. I keep clicking the wrong post to reply! Lol.

[Striker879]

You definitely need to get Oblivion out from under UAC's clutches if you plan on modding the game. Here's a link to Bben46's wiki article Oblivion reinstall procedure. If you use the Steam version of the game don't miss the link near the top of the page about moving your Steam install location, and don't skip the registry cleaning step ... it's important.

 

I have an old disk version of the game. The little booklet style manual that came with it doesn't go into much detail, but it did cover the basic stuff (I'm weird ... I read things like manuals and readmes). Here's a couple of specific UESP Wiki links that cover some basic stuff: Controls (take note of the part at the end of this about using game controllers) and First Time Players.

[bben46]

I have just the opposite reaction to the UI. compared to the Skyrim PC UI for keyboard/mouse, the Oblivion UI, while not perfect, is a dream. :tongue: However, the Darn UI is even better.

 

I find I have much better control over the game with a KB/Mouse. Oblivion's UI was made for it, while Skyrim's kb/mouse UI is just a direct copy of their xbox controler UI. which I found to be very awkward on the KB/Mouse. They didn't bother to make a real PC UI for Skyrim. :rolleyes:

 

There are several older threads on setting up the controller on PC for Oblivion if you prefer it. Hopefully someone can link one of them for you.

 

As for modding

I still prefer the OBMM manager over the NMM manager for Oblivion. It does require a little more work to install the mods though, and the NMM does work for Oblivion also.

 

Get OBSE - it is needed for many mods. http://obse.silverlock.org/

 

Be sure you have the latest patch installed - if not get it here. http://www.bethsoft.com/eng/patches.php

 

If you DO NOT have Shivering Isles, use the Oblivion patch ONLY.

If you DO have Shivering Isles, use the Shivering Isles Patch ONLY.

 

check the top 100 list for the favorite mods.

[Stemin]

 

If you DO NOT have Shivering Isles, use the Oblivion patch ONLY.

If you DO have Shivering Isles, use the Shivering Isles Patch ONLY.

 

check the top 100 list for the favorite mods.

 

I do have the game of the year edition with the Knights of Nine and Shivering Isles, but I probably have to install those separately, yes? I'm assuming that's what the second disk is for?

[Striker879]

When the GotY asks for the second disk it will install Shivering Isles and patch the game up to 1.2.0416. You can confirm the version number in the lower left of the menu screen. If you don't wish to play through the SI expansion you don't need to ... it will add one entry in your quest log about "A strange door ..." and that's all. Having SI installed will also give you the benefit of compatibility with any mods that require SI assets ... if you have it install it.

[Stemin]

When the GotY asks for the second disk it will install Shivering Isles and patch the game up to 1.2.0416. You can confirm the version number in the lower left of the menu screen. If you don't wish to play through the SI expansion you don't need to ... it will add one entry in your quest log about "A strange door ..." and that's all. Having SI installed will also give you the benefit of compatibility with any mods that require SI assets ... if you have it install it.

 

Hmm.. I installed the game on my laptop and desktop and it never asked for disk 2.