The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

[kcwong]

And let my show you some legendary creatures...

Giant mub crab:

Giant Slaughterfish:

This is what my current character looks like... it's taken very early. Now she's level 28 and using full enchanted glass gears.

This is my first character's first encounter with a land dreugh. She's too ugly so I had to keep a helmet on her at all times.

Beautiful moon (and the back of daedric cuirass):

Waterfalls... there're many waterfalls in the game.

 

[Steph]

I won't post screenshots... As I have a GeForce 4200 Ti, and playing with Oldblivion, the game is a lot less beautifull (but still very enjoyable).

The good news is when I upgrade my computer next year, and start again, I'll play a "whole new game".
Especially if I install several mods then, as I'm currently playing with only a few mods.

 

[kcwong]

My video card is not good either... I'm using ATI Radeon 9550 Infinite, the best power to money ratio card I can find for my AGP motherboard. The screenshots you see are 800x600, no AA, but with view distances and most other things set to max.

I can turn on 4xAA with 800x600... but only when there's no certain effects around. When the effects are on screen, the framerate would be less than 1. 1024x768 is okay, but not as smooth as in 800x600.

I think I'll upgrade when NWN2 or Dragon Age comes out... then I'll get a strong PCI-E card to get the most out of Oblivion...

 

[Ultima Dragoon]

And let my show you some legendary creatures...

Giant mub crab:

Giant Slaughterfish:

Nice use of setscale. I liked doing that to Morrowind's mudcrabs and making them look like mountains.

 

[Thunderfall]

Bought the house in Skingrad today. Awesome house! It's well worth the 25000 Gold.

 

[kcwong]

At first I think the Skingrad mansion is the coolest too... but after a while I grow tired of climbing those stairs.

Though I will buy it even if I don't plan to move in... an endless source of pie and mead (and perhaps blood too) is good to have.

 

[Thunderfall]

hehe... I plan to move most of my stuff from 4 other houses into the Skingrad house soon.

BTW, have you read the Oblivion tweak guide?

http://www.tweakguides.com/Oblivion_1.html

For a while I was playing under 800x600 but with the tweak guide I am playing under 1024x768 with good quality. It's pretty smooth most of the time. The memory tweak in the ini file mentioned appears to be useful.

 

[FriendlyFire]

At first I think the Skingrad mansion is the coolest too... but after a while I grow tired of climbing those stairs.

Uh you can get oh 6 chest and about 10 crates in the basement.
Which is where I place all my loot.

Individualised for easy searching.
One chest for Alchemy
One Chest for Light amour
etc etc

 

[Thunderfall]

Two screenshots:

I have 4 mannequins in the Skingrad house bedroom, wearing Glass, Daedric, Elven, and Ebony armors. Going to add 3 more to wear Dwarven, Orcish, and Mithril...

Those Oblivion gates appear everywhere, even in the middle of a cemetery.

I have nVidia GeForce 6800 btw. It's a decent card. My CPU is slow though -- only AMD Athlon XP 2800+.

 

[Thunderfall]

I encountered a strange thing today. I entered an Oblivion Gate near Skingrad, then found an Oblivion Gate within the Oblivion. I entered it and found out from the F4 screen that this Oblivion Gate is located near Leydinwiin.

 

[Ultima Dragoon]

Wheres that gate in the Graveyard? I need to purge it.

And is there a mod to add mannequins to Oblivion?

 

[kcwong]

Yeah, some of the Oblivion gates can lead to other places.

All the gates you see are from a set of templates (IIRC 8 in total?)... so after a while you will start to recognize your way in a new gate.

The gates are not good for quick travel though... because they do respawn like caves, ruins and dungeons.

I've read people's experiments with these "dual" gates:

1. Enter an Oblivion gate with 2 entrances
2. Exit through the second entrance (so when you take the sigil stone, you will be outside the second entrance)
3. Head back via the second entrance, close the gate.
4. Go to where entrance one was...

And they find the first gate is still there, and inside it is using a different template.

 

[kcwong]

@ Ultima Dragoon:

Visit www.tessource.net ... most mods are placed there. Search for mannequins and you will find them.

I haven't used any mannequins mods... but I don't like the one TF is using... kinda creepy having these armed-to-the-teeth dudes, who are staring into the void, standing around your bed. And if they haven't changed things, then your mannequins will blink their eyes?

I hope I can find a mannequins mod that use a new head model (no face) and with wood texture instead of skin...

 

[kcwong]

Uh you can get oh 6 chest and about 10 crates in the basement.
Which is where I place all my loot.

Individualised for easy searching.
One chest for Alchemy
One Chest for Light amour
etc etc

Well...

- I think it's for the housekeep
- It's ugly
- You still need to go down stairs (or is it a loading screen) to get to it
- Your bed isn't in there

I prefer the Chorrol one now...
- a barrel near entrance for alchemy
- a wardrobe near entrance for armor
- another wardrobe near entrace for weapons
- A desk a few steps inside for misc. items
- Bookcases near desk
- Weapon shop, misc. shop, guilds and church right near it

That's good enough for me

 

[kcwong]

A few mods I recommend to you all:

BTMod:

Features:
Improve many aspects of the stock Oblivion UI
• Increase the amount of the Inventory, Magic, Container(Looting), Repair and Alchemy Ingredients listings to 12 or higher *
• Increased area to view Local and World Maps
• Increased area to view Quests and Journal
• Increased area to view Skills, Factions and Accomplishments
• Added percentage display to HP/MP/FA display †
• Added Durability status under the Weapon Icon on the Main Hud †
• Enabled and cleaned up Spell Effect durtation timers †
• During Custom Class Creation, increased the size of the enterable name
• Mapped Arrow Keys to various Menu buttons ‡

Support for removing Marker/POI icons from the Compass and Local/World Maps
• 3 ESP files to control Markers\POI icons on the Compass
• Map Config entry to control the Quest Marker on Local/World Maps

Configuration files to tailor the UI to your personal tastes
• Each Menu has it's own file(s) to control layout of icons, windows, graphics and more
• Future releases can use your previously altered Config files to keep your settings

Immersive Interface:

Immersive Interface changes the appearance of the main heads-up display to make it smaller, simpler, and less intrusive. Unlike many interface mods which add custom graphics or a "new look" to the default Oblivion HUD, Immersive Interface was written with the feeling that for players looking for "maximum immersion", a much subtler and more minimal on-screen interface would make the game more immersive without sacrificing the clarity and availability of important game information. It thus attempts to free up screen space so that more of the world is visible, and to take artificial game information slightly outside the player's main field of visual focus. The hope is that this information will still be easy to find at a glance, but will virtually disappear when the player is not looking for it.

You can see Immersive Interface at work in my screenshots (here). It includes a tool to help configure the XML files for you - you just point and click.

NOTE: Immersive Interface is compatible with BTMod. BTMod modifies a lot of things, while II only modifies what you can see on the main screen. So just apply BTMod first, then run II's config tool.

Khajiit Night eye Toggle:

This little Modification changes the Khajiit Night Eye to be a toggle instead of a timed effect.
Just place the .esp file into the ..\oblivion\data folder and activate it.

While I have yet to play a Khajiit, I feel this is more realistic. The night eye is a natural ability given by their eyes.

Summoned Chest:

Teaches the player a Lesser Power called Summon chest. With this power, the player can summon to their position (in any interior or exterior cell) their own personal storage chest. Very useful should you happen to be half-way through a dungeon, and are at the limits of your encumbrance. Simply summon your chest, fill it with the items you like, and send it away. You can re-summon the chest at any time and retrieve any items you've ever placed inside for use or sale.

While this is unbalancing for new characters, it is a god send for mature characters trying to collect a lot of stuff to display at home. Just keep your new characters away from that book and it should be fine.

 

[Thunderfall]

@ Ultima Dragoon:

Visit www.tessource.net ... most mods are placed there. Search for mannequins and you will find them.

I haven't used any mannequins mods... but I don't like the one TF is using... kinda creepy having these armed-to-the-teeth dudes, who are staring into the void, standing around your bed. And if they haven't changed things, then your mannequins will blink their eyes?

I hope I can find a mannequins mod that use a new head model (no face) and with wood texture instead of skin...

I don't find them creepy at all. The mannequins are easy to setup and you can buy two types: marble or wood. And no, they don't blink eyes.

You can also change the pose easily -- to make them just stand there, or with sword raised, or shield raised, or stealth, or casting pose.

 

[kcwong]

I don't find them creepy at all. The mannequins are easy to setup and you can buy two types: marble or wood. And no, they don't blink eyes.

You can also change the pose easily -- to make them just stand there, or with sword raised, or shield raised, or stealth, or casting pose.

There're material types? Wood and marble?

From your screenshot above, I see the daedric one is like a bald redguard man... perhaps it's too far away, and it is infact wood.

Which mannequin mod are you using? Could you post a closer look?

 

[Thunderfall]

There're material types? Wood and marble?

From your screenshot above, I see the daedric one is like a bald redguard man... perhaps it's too far away, and it is infact wood.

Which mannequin mod are you using? Could you post a closer look?

It's Reznod Mannequins:
http://www.tessource.net/files/cache/2055.html
Yup, it comes in two styles: wood or marble. There are female mannequins too.

A tip for using it: stand and face a direction you want the mannequin to face, then drop the mannequin there. The mannequin will appear where you stand facing exactly the same direction.

Close-up:

Wheres that gate in the Graveyard? I need to purge it.

Should be the one Northeast of Skingrad, off the road. The Northwest one I believe has an Oblivion Gate within an Oblivion Gate.

 

[kcwong]

Thanks Thunderfall!

Ooooh the closer look is indeed a bit creepy to me... I'd rather the mannequin has no eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Just an orb for the head.
I just hate creepy things... that's why I delegate all the zombie killing to my summoned creatures. You can't imagine how long I've put away the main quest in MW due to the corpus beasts.

Also some information for Ultima Dragoon: There're many oblivion gates placeholders placed in the whole map. For the major gates (the great gate and one outside each city), the location and the template used are fixed. For the random gates, the game randomly decides which placeholders to use and which template to apply. So you might not find a gate in that graveyard at all, unless you close a lot of other gates or are lucky.

 

[Thunderfall]

Dungeon crawling is much more creepy, especially those with lots coffins.