mutha funkster

I've spent the whole time as a fighter character and have got pretty good
with a sword, but it just seems that some enemies don't take a hit while
other go down with one. So after repeated deaths what do you do? Well in
any other RPG you'd run off and find some better armour, practice with the
sword and raise you skill levels so the the next time you encounter that
enemy it is on a more level footing.

Not in Oblivion, the damn balancing bar and auto-levelling means that this
is pointless and so you never really know if you are cheating or good at
the game or what, as you have no yardstick to measure exactly how good you
are.

The whole thing is getting in the way of an otherwise excellent game IMO.

deann

The "balance" system does sort of negate a "sense of accomplishment"
and replace it with a "sense of futility".

It is not something I miss now that I have returned to Morrowind.
There are, however, several things that I do miss about Oblivion:

1. I like the way Oblivion flags items that would be stolen if you
picked them up with a red hand and keeps stolen items separate from
nonstolen ones. I use "tfh" in MW to ID
items-that-would-be-marked-stolen, but sometimes I forget to do this
and pick up someone's property (which then flags like items as stolen
for all game-eternity).

2. I like the way Oblivion marks locations on your map (MW only marks
main towns; you can search forever for dungeons and the like....all
right, maybe the stupid red and green arrows sometimes have a point
when directions to a place are things like "in the rocks behind the
tree").

3. I like the way modders are already making interesting companions
that can keep up and add to your gaming experience. Well, MW has this
in spades, but I liked it in Oblivion anyway.

4. I like the way Oblivion shrines heal you up completely, and don't
get confused by items of constant enchantment.

5. I miss Atkivir. Sort of. And Ruined Tail. And Ariana Trudeaux, a
bit. (Don't tell Laura this. Or Constance.)

5. I like, uhm, I miss, uhm....I'm sure there is something else I
miss. I'll think of it eventually.

thomas

There is a patch that fixes this - have you given that a try? Might be
worth it.

What is the name of the patch? would love to try this.

thomas

OSCUROS OBLIVION OVERHAUL is the name of the one I was thinking of.
Warning - before you try it save your saved games and it's also
recommended you start a new game.

Read the FAQ about it - there are things you should know before trying.

memnoch

Simple. Don't use the slider.

150+ hours into the vanilla game, lvl 24 Agent and I haven't once
altered the difficulty slider.

I guess I balance the game by actually playing it.

Well now, did you even read the post, especially the part about
repeated deaths?

I was going to reply to this with a narky comment but to be honest
you've made me think that because the sodding slider is there I'm using
it. I realise now that if there wasn't a slider I'd try that bit harder
to get past the difficult parts without cheating, as it is the slider
just seems to easy to tweak.

I suppose the moral is "must try harder"... yeah sod it I'll set it
back to normal and stop bloody whinging eh?

deann

Not moving the slider is fine for those with higher end cards. But
some of the tougher fights involve multiple opponents, which can make
the game go like this: 1. picture freezes for a few fractions of a
second; enemies hit me throughout. 2. Picture unfreezes, but no enemy
is in front of me; stop trying to (uselessly) press hit button and try
to turn around to find enemy. 3) find enemy and picture freezes. 4.
Repeat steps 1 through 3 until dead.

Moving up to a 7800 helped this a lot, but did not make the problem "go
away."