The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

[skadistic]

I've have arcane access and i've used some enchanted bows but it hasn't been enough. However i cant enchant arrows... Deadric quest for bothia?.. where does that start? I remember i got some enchanted bows an arrows when i cleared out a thieves den with maglir.

I must first state that you should save before doing this in case the loot in here isn't that good because of your level.

Boethia shine:
To get there head east from the southern end of the Imperial city. Go to memorial cave - Arkveds Tower - Squandered Mine - Boethias shine.

To activate talk to the people around the shrine. The curser that looks like a crown is the one who will tell you what you need as an offering. I forget what you need to offer. When you go in to the quest you will fight a few very well equiped people. A few mages a few fighters and some archers (one at a time so you can heal between) with alot of arrows. go in with the most minimal of things. You will get alot of potions I walked out with over 100 health 100 restore majika and i had to leave alot behind. Weapons are based on level so if your a low level the loot wont be as good. A fortify strength spell (found at churches) will be helpfull as it gives you the chance to clain your booty.


hope that helps.

 

[Avelon]

I think i must resort to adjusting the difficulty slider in my favor, but before i do so i will see if my trusted forum have any advise to a poor archer.

*GASP*
This cannot be accepted! No man deserves such a fate!
First off, Athletics + Acrobatics = your friend. If you can run and jump, then you can stay away from your enemies. Often it's enough simply to run backwards - most enemies must stop to attack, and they will miss.

Magic-using enemies are no problem. Just hop to one side, stop long enough to fire at them, and you're good.

And always, always, always try to sneak attack enemies. Have sneak toggled on when you enter a gate. If you're spotted right away, just toggle it off and start moving those chicken legs.

A good idea is to wander around in light armour (or heavy armour, but you have to MASTER it before it doesn't hamper you) and find small, weak enemies like rats or scamps - let them beat the crap out of you and just heal. When your armour gets down to about 50%, that's usually a good time to put an arrow in your rat and break out the smith's hammers.

For an archer, sneaking is very important. I can't stress that enough! Stealth is your best weapon, because an arrow that NORMALLY would shave off 1/6 of your opponent's health will instead hit them for half of it if you're an apprentice of sneak. Master sneaking and you can pick off just about any 'normal' enemy with a well-placed shot while undetected.

Make sure you don't neglect the stats not "important" to your class - endurance gives you more health to make mistakes with (nobody's perfect...) and strength lets you carry more ammo and loot around. Luck means better loot and more critical attacks, too.

Some good factions for a purist archer - Thieves' Guild (sneak, athletics, light armour in rare cases), Dark Brotherhood (sneak, athletics, acrobatics, light armour, and plenty of opportunities to put an arrow or three in a victim...only a few cases in which the bow is not useful [when weapons apply], so don't be afraid! And just use the dagger you get [doesn't burden you to carry it around] if you run out of arrows or you just need a melee weapon!), Arena (might be a liiiiiiittle difficult as a pure archer, but don't sweat it, you'll get through it alright).

 

[Steph]

I've just become a Knight-Errant of the order of the White Stallion!

Is it possible to gain rank in these factions too?

 

[kcwong]

@ Steph:

@ sweetpete: Unless you can hold an arrow and stab an orc to death with it, like what Legolas did in the first LotR movie, prepare another skill (melee or magic, even your fists) for close combat.

 

[Snerk]

Thanks avelon
Sofar i've only increased my marksman skill for fighting. I think its up to 84 or something. My blade skill is like 7 or something. I dunno whats up or down on a sword...!
The arena has gone suprisingly well as a pure archer. I only got the orc/vampire left, but i recon i'll do a little more advansing before i take him on.

Yeah sneak is very important to me, but me being detected seem to vary alot. Sometimes i dont get detected standing really close, and sometimes i get decetced from miles away. I know the light and stuff affects it but still..

I've just made my most powerfull bow so far. Its a deadric bow i do 19 damage with. I enchanted it with 8 frost damage, 8 fire damage and 8 shock damage for 1 sec. I like it.... i like it alot

Question: Why can i only get traning for people sometimes. I talk to people i know can train me but the training button dont always appear at the bottom line. Is it a bug or is it something i dont understand? Enlighten me!

 

[kcwong]

You can only train 5 times per level. There should be a line of red text to tell you that.

Also, trainers have their limit - they cannot train you above their own skill level. If that happens you'll need to find another traininer (expert or master). The trainer will tell you where to find the next trainer.

I think trainers also have working hours. Check the time?

Or, you don't have enough gold.

 

[steviejay]

Thanks avelon
I've just made my most powerfull bow so far. Its a deadric bow i do 19 damage with. I enchanted it with 8 frost damage, 8 fire damage and 8 shock damage for 1 sec. I like it.... i like it alot

how do you enchant weapons?

 

[Avelon]

kcwong, the button should still be there in the not enough gold/already trained 5 times case. You just won't be able to USE the trainer.
I think that it's because they have working hours that their training option doesn't appear, yes.

sweetpete, I've killed an Imperial Guard fresh out of the sewers with that dinky little iron sword before. Blade skill of 15. =D You don't need much - just guard, and counter-attack right after you're attacked. A speedy character has a natural advantage in combat, and archers are speedy. Getting the hang of melee combat takes a little practice, but you'll get it - and as your blocking skill increases, you'll find it much easier, as you won't take so much damage in between your own attacks.

steviejay: Get a soul gem that has a soul inside of it, and an unenchanted weapon. Go into your inventory and select the soul gem. Your enchanting skill determines how hard it is to enchant or recharge an item, and how many charges it takes per use. You also need to know a spell with the effect(s) you want - i.e. if you want to deal fire damage when you attack with that weapon, then you need to know a fire damage spell like 'Flare'.

 

[Chieftess]

I've just made my most powerfull bow so far. Its a deadric bow i do 19 damage with. I enchanted it with 8 frost damage, 8 fire damage and 8 shock damage for 1 sec. I like it.... i like it alot

Sounds like my Glass Longsword. BTW, are the Daedric items cursed? I had a Daedric Mace once from Kvatch, and I think it was sapping HP from me.


Anyway, I'm off to buy the house at Skingrad. I just gathered up the loot from my house that I'm going to sell. I also had to get my speechcraft up - had to google it since I didn't even know about the mini-game (needed it, since the orc at the castle wouldn't even talk to me even with 69 disposition - charm spells didn't increase it higher). The mini-game itself was a little tricky to get used to, but once I did, it's a little cheesy - you can lower your disposition just to keep playing the minigame, thus increasing your speechcraft skill.

EDIT: Now how I'm I gonna save up 35K+ gold for the furniture? (not to mention the mannequins are going in there.)

 

[Steph]

I have 70k+ gold and don't know what do it, as I've bought all the houses and their furniture. To bad I cannot make you a gift!

 

[Chieftess]

How do you collect a lot of gold? Seems I'm running out of caves to pillage and plunder...

Anyway, I drew up a house (Palace now that I think of it) that I'd like to mod into the game (not sure where I'd put it...).

Green - the actual mansion itself. It's maybe equal to the house for sale in Skingrad times 3. (if you put them side by side).
Yellow - "The Great Hall". This will have a grand stairway leading into the room, marble floor, marble columns, and a huge Grand Piano off to one side (top-right probably), with a half dozen, huge gold chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and massive pieces of artwork.
Blue - The east and west wings. The "hallways" leading into the mansion can fit 5 rooms on each side - these are some of the guest rooms. (I might make them offices). They're the same size as a decent sized house in Oblivion.
Cyan - "The Grand Balcony". A popular summertime party hangout at the back of the complex.
Red - Not sure what to call these, but these just look cool in front of the complex. Maybe a pantry area, or the gaurd's barracks.

Things to add:

- On the sides of the red area, I was thinking of maybe having a Gaurd Tower of some sort.
- Basement. Not sure what to put down there. Maybe a winery or something.
- Dungeon. (Torture chamber? Jail?) If I add the gaurd towers, this would be the perfect place to put it - it wouldn't be directly connected to the house, of course.
- 2nd floor. Covers the Great Hall, Wings, and Mansion. The guest rooms are here.
- 3rd floor. Covers the Wings, and mansion. These will probably be the archer "towers" or something. Or, it could be the throne room of sorts with a nice view.
4th floor. Covers the mansion. The Master Bedroom.
5th floor. Covers the mansion. This is a private area, with a balcony on the top of the house. There is a stairway around the outside of the 5th floor that leads to the roof.
Roof. Not sure what would be up here. Something special I suppose.


Things for the complex:

- Catering Service. This includes cooks, maids, butlers, and cleaning people. 20 gold per caterer, per 4 hour shift. (A good sized staff would be 25 people, covering 4 shifts - 16 hours. 2,000g per contract - not sure if it should be per day, per week, or per month.

- Gaurd Service. This includes swordsmen only. You can assign up to 5 gaurds per area of the house (Grand Hall gets 10). Cost is 500g per gaurd per shift (8 hours - 6am-2pm, 2pm-10pm, 10pm-6am). (500g is paid either daily, weekly, or monthly - might make this monthly)

- Order of Archers. 20 archers, 10 for each 3rd floor "wing". These are paid like the swordsmen, but 200g.

- Elite Imperial City Gaurd. 1000g per gaurd. These are pikemen (or halbarders) that gaurd the main mansion only.

This "Palace" would cost 250,000g (maybe more?), plus a 100,000g lease that you have to purchase from the Imperial City Council.


If I make a mod out of this, I could including building your own city, allowing the player too gain income from businesses that are in the city.

But, until then, I've gotta teach myself Oblivion modding.

 

[Gelion]

Chieftess if you are interested I had an idea for city-making in Morrowind that never came true.... it involved being stranded on an unknown island after a colony ship (that you helped put together) crushed. Building you hut from scratch, finding other survivors, exploring the island and in the end becoming a governor of your new colony. I coult type it up if you are interested....

 

[Maniacal]

YES! I FINALY BOUGHT IT!

Putting the disk in the drive!

I just want to know, for those in other countries, did the CD come in a paper packet thing there? I hate it when they do that.

 

[skadistic]

How do you collect a lot of gold? Seems I'm running out of caves to pillage and plunder...
.

When you get up to higher levels and all the bandits you face have full sets of deadric armour you can get alot of gold quickly. I have 5 compleat suits of deadric with diff. enchantments. In stead of going to caves go to camps and fight bandits and marauders. It takes a week (?) for the camps to respawn bandits but you can go from camp to camp then cash in your loot. (not all camps have enamies some have friendlies I learned the hard way)

 

[Gelion]

Is there a way to get rid of the enchantments? This always bothered me in Morrowind.

 

[skadistic]

Is there a way to get rid of the enchantments? This always bothered me in Morrowind.

Sell it and get one that isn't. I wish you could re-enchant the same ol' sword over with diff. spell effects but you can't.

 

[Gelion]

Sell it and get one that isn't. I wish you could re-enchant the same ol' sword over with diff. spell effects but you can't.

I hated piles and piles of useless robes, daggers, belts that stock up in merchants inventores...
The selling only works with normal stuff (sadly), not with unique stuff. Perhaps a future mod could help un-enchant stuff?

 

[Chieftess]

Chieftess if you are interested I had an idea for city-making in Morrowind that never came true.... it involved being stranded on an unknown island after a colony ship (that you helped put together) crushed. Building you hut from scratch, finding other survivors, exploring the island and in the end becoming a governor of your new colony. I coult type it up if you are interested....

Great minds think alike then! Sure.



Anyway, I'm getting allies to defend another city. Kind of annoying having to shut all of those Oblivion Gates...


EDIT:

What I was thinking (granted, it wasn't being stranded on an island -- but, I had a Civ4 story planned where a ship (slave ship, cargo ship, etc.) gets stranded on a new continent, and the people populate it, forming countries there, and rebuilding an economy from scratch) was you start off with tents, and maybe a wooden shack (made from the boat), and it would go something like this:

1 - Your economy starts off with whatever money you have. It's essentially a... "forced"... investment. (the town's future bank money is yours to play with later -- at a cost if you use too much)
2 - You can't swim to the mainland - game won't let you strand your people.
3 - While you don't lose your money, you have to give your people contracts like, "Mine gold", "Collect wood", "Mine stone". After enough material is collected, you can pay others to build a house. They'll start off as wooden "shacks".
4 - While you can build things like inns, and stores, they'll be useless unless there's someone to run it, and there's customers. Things you need to help keep shops moving (attract customers):

- Harbor. This is needed for essentally all shops to actually have customers. It's really needed for the inn, though.
- Fighter's Guild. Needed for weapon/armor/repair shops.
- Mage's Guild. Needed for clothes and jewerly shops to run (for those enchanted clothes!).
- Barracks/Tower. Needed to hire gaurds. This keeps your town safe from things like roaming goblins.
- Bank. Once your town is large enough, this is essentially the town's cash pool. You can take money out, but it may affect how the town functions. Basically, if it's too large of a percentage, shops will cease running, and your citizens will revolt.

Anyway, back to playing!

 

[Avelon]

I hated piles and piles of useless robes, daggers, belts that stock up in merchants inventores...
The selling only works with normal stuff (sadly), not with unique stuff. Perhaps a future mod could help un-enchant stuff?

A script to automatically detect the type of equipment and replace your enchaned version with a mundane version would be impossible without a rewrite of the hardcoded enchanted item scripts. This is because the ID of an enchanted item is generated and then indexed (in case you have exact duplicates), meaning you would have to have a stored ID for every possible enchantment combination. Haha. No.

What you CAN do is write a script that lets you put an item in a container (we'll call this container the 'Mundane Machine', and it will be an Ayleid chest), then activate something (a 'button' on the chest, an inventory item, anything...doesn't matter) that allows you to choose what kind of item should replace the item in the box. Sure, you could pull literally any mundane item out of the box because there's no way to check the original item type, but if you want to cheat that's your prerogative.

onActivate should go like this-
Menu: Weapon, Armour, Clothing, Jewelry
Weapon- Blades, Blunt Weapons
Blades- Daggers, Swords
Daggers- Iron dagger, steel dagger, elven dagger, mithril dagger, glass dagger, ebony dagger, daedric dagger

etc. for the rest. Tedious to implement, but not difficult at all. The final option should then call a script to reset the Mundane Machine (removeall) and then add the selected item to it.

 

[Maniacal]

Is there fast travel in this game? I am wandering around Anvil with Martin hoping to find a quick route to the Imperial City.