elder scrolls 3 and oblivion.

thefranklin · 31 Mar 2006 at 21:33

How do you turn the grass off? What command is it in the .ini

Also, where did you find the setting sliders? It detected mine as high, and neither options let me lower it. I would rather run low because i run at 1680x1050 and occasionally gets laggy when fighting. I went to video options in the beginning but it has no visual settings other than resolution.

Inquisitor · 31 Mar 2006 at 22:03

thefranklin said:
How do you turn the grass off? What command is it in the .ini

Just set the grass distance setting to minimum in the ingame video options.

TommoUK · 1 Apr 2006 at 03:12

In almost every way I think that Oblivion is superior. The gameplay is much more fun, combat is more involving and the spell system is better as you can cast and fight. There are some very fun quests, especially in the assassins guild, so far the story seems quite good.

However, even though the world seems more alive than the one in Morrowind, it seems a lot less diverse. All the major cities have a similar structure and design, even if a different layout. They all have castles which tend to have it's own quest, a chapel which all look quite similar, most of them have the same tree in the middle of a circle.

The cities have some variation and are quite interesting, but it's nowhere near as varied as the difference between Balmora, Vivec, the Telvanni cities and the Redoran cities in Morrowind.

Even though the Morrowind NPCs were on the whole more generic, there were some more memorable people, like the Vivec guards.

But that's not a huge issue. On the whole, I think it's superior to Morrowind. I'm finding it challenging, fun and addictive - even if it is a bit simpler than it's predecessor.

me227 · 1 Apr 2006 at 06:03

Is it just me or does the map seem smaller in Oblivion?

CliffyG · 1 Apr 2006 at 08:23

Saikor said:
I've given up playing oblivion, it runs too slowly on my system for it to be enjoyable.

AMD64 3200+
1gig Corsair Twinx 3200
XFX 6800GT

Besides the bad performance, it does feel like there aren't as many quests as morrowind and it has been simplified too much. Anyone else HATE that pointer on the compass for example? half the fun was walking around in morrowind going the wrong way, finding other dungeons just because you took the wrong turning. Also do we really need fast track? it isn't all that big despite what they say, how long will it take to walk/gallop from one town to the next; not long.
I never did finish morrowind, and the gfx are still pretty good, so I think I'll pick it up for 2.99 (my other cd was 'damaged', long story) might as well get the two expansions as well.

Thats odd as i get passable performance with a Barton 3000, 1 gig of geil value and a 6800GT. Thats at 1280 x 1024 too with 2 x AA, Bloom and all distant effects on. I've tried with HDR and got about 20FPS outside. Any other combination of settings seems to get me about 25FPS outside, AA and Bloom doesn't seem to make any difference to FPS whether on or off. 25 is ok for me anyway, doesn't look to bad and as it's not fast paced something i can definately put up with.

EDIT

Thats with all the ingame settings left as they are, didnt realise i could scroll down

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Sleepery · 1 Apr 2006 at 08:34

thefranklin said:
How do you turn the grass off? What command is it in the .ini

Also, where did you find the setting sliders? It detected mine as high, and neither options let me lower it. I would rather run low because i run at 1680x1050 and occasionally gets laggy when fighting. I went to video options in the beginning but it has no visual settings other than resolution.

It might seem obvious, but I actually missed it for a while too: in many of the options screens you can scroll down to show more options. There's a kind of scroll bar to the right, but it's not really obvious (until you find it, then you feel like an idiot

)

Inquisitor · 1 Apr 2006 at 11:25

me227 said:
Is it just me or does the map seem smaller in Oblivion?

I don't think it's actually that much smaller, it's just the way that the map is laid out. In Morrowind, it took a lot longer to get to a certain place, because fast travel could only take you between certain towns, rather than from anywhere to anywhere you've visited. Also, the landscape in Morrowind was a pain in the arse to walk over, as you'd constantly be getting big hills in your way that you have to find you way around.

Then add in the fact that there are only really 9 settlements in Oblivion, as opposed to the hundreds of disparate settlements that were present in Morrowind. I think that's why Oblivion seems smaller.

Psyk · 1 Apr 2006 at 13:17

My biggest criticism is the levelling. I thought the point in RPGs was that you improve as your levels increase, but since enemies level up just as much you never really get stronger, you just have to keep up.

Sweetloaf · 1 Apr 2006 at 13:54

Psyk said:
My biggest criticism is the levelling. I thought the point in RPGs was that you improve as your levels increase, but since enemies level up just as much you never really get stronger, you just have to keep up.

I have to disagree with this, I'm level 13 now and wheras in the past I would have a hard time fending off a bleedin' wolf, I can now take on a bear, a troll and one of those tree women things all at once. I'm certainly harder than when I started. Is it just in the dungeons that things level with you because I haven't really found this to be a problem? Its tricky when a new wandering monster appears in the wild for the first time but you soon out power them!

Inquisitor said:
I don't think it's actually that much smaller *snip.

I think people see it as smaller because of fast travel, it's less of a hike to get from one end to the other and as you say you don't need to plan a route. I actually think draw distance plays a large part in our perception of scale as well, you can walk for what seems like miles, turn around and still see Imperial city for most of the time making it seem less like you have wandered miles into the wilderness.

nintenjo · 1 Apr 2006 at 15:15

Been playing it at work on a:

3ghz P4
2gig Ram
X800 XT

And on high detail its silky smooth.. only the HDR and AA seems to kill it. Dunno why everyone says its so demanding.

Psyk · 1 Apr 2006 at 16:47

Sweetloaf said:
I have to disagree with this, I'm level 13 now and wheras in the past I would have a hard time fending off a bleedin' wolf, I can now take on a bear, a troll and one of those tree women things all at once. I'm certainly harder than when I started. Is it just in the dungeons that things level with you because I haven't really found this to be a problem? Its tricky when a new wandering monster appears in the wild for the first time but you soon out power them!

Maybe you got better multipliers when you levelled up. It's not too bad anymore, I think I am starting to get stronger compared to the enemies.

HangTime · 1 Apr 2006 at 17:27

How does Morrowind run on modern systems? Speaking to people at the time, I know at the time of release it was 'unplayable' even on an athlonXP/512meg/gf3 or similar, so I never bought it at the time. Presumably the expansions and various essential mods that have been released have slowed things down even further - I remember ULTRA_EXTREME posting about how demanding it is last year.

I have ~ 3800+/1gig PC3700 cas2/6800u, which should be more than enough for a 2002 game, but I'm thinking if it still doesn't run smoothly I might be better off getting Oblivion instead.

dirtydog · 1 Apr 2006 at 17:38

I actually just tried the original Morrowind for the first time, just the other day - prompted by all the hype surrounding Oblivion in fact

My machine is lower spec than yours and it ran smoothly: P4 2.6C, 1GB PC3200, GF4 Ti 4200. I uninstalled the game and binned it after an hour of playing it though

As I suspected, not my cup of tea at all.

Meridian · 1 Apr 2006 at 19:34

The leveling thing isn't quite that straightforward. Most monsters and NPCs actually have a fixed level; what varies is what monsters are spawned. If you enter a dungeon/area at level one it will spawn level one-ish monsters (rats, ordinary wolves etc). As your level gets higher, the tougher monsters are spawned. But it's still annoying to me and many others. Good for a Holy War though.

M

Sweetloaf · 1 Apr 2006 at 19:45

Meridian said:
The leveling thing isn't quite that straightforward. Most monsters and NPCs actually have a fixed level; what varies is what monsters are spawned. If you enter a dungeon/area at level one it will spawn level one-ish monsters (rats, ordinary wolves etc). As your level gets higher, the tougher monsters are spawned. But it's still annoying to me and many others. Good for a Holy War though.

M

Yep, it's fine by me but I see why others don't like it. I find it a little odd tbh that RPG players expect things to get easier the more they play. No other games are like this! I understand the whole wanting to feel like a hero thing but usually by the time your character gets to this stage the rewards aren't worth doing the easier bits for! Unless you are one of these people who does the same thing over and over for exp or cash..ie farming!

HangTime · 1 Apr 2006 at 20:19

Sweetloaf said:
I find it a little odd tbh that RPG players expect things to get easier the more they play. No other games are like this!

To be fair though, most games are more linear in that it is quite rare that you revisit the same areas within a short timespan. And if you do, there will be a genuine reason for the game being harder secondtime around (e.g. a big scary monster has escaped, an alert has gone out calling in more guards etc).

I don't think RPGers expect games to get easier the more they play across the board - they still expect certain areas/monsters to be hard to get past - it's just that they DO expect their increasing abilities to make areas which were once hard, easier.

Imagine a situation whereby you could go back and do the first few levels of Doom, only with a full arsenal of weapons and ammo ie rockets, plasma, BFG etc. It would be a lot easier than with just fist, pistol and maybe a shotgun. The only reason games like that don't get easier as you go along is because you are playing on levels designed with tougher monsters etc in them.

Psyk · 1 Apr 2006 at 20:32

Sweetloaf said:
Yep, it's fine by me but I see why others don't like it. I find it a little odd tbh that RPG players expect things to get easier the more they play. No other games are like this! I understand the whole wanting to feel like a hero thing but usually by the time your character gets to this stage the rewards aren't worth doing the easier bits for! Unless you are one of these people who does the same thing over and over for exp or cash..ie farming!

But surely the whole point of stats and levelling up is so you get stronger? If enemies stay just as strong compared to you then there's no point in having skills and attributes. You might as well just stay the same the whole way through the game.

Sweetloaf · 1 Apr 2006 at 22:14

Yeah I do see both your points, I suppose my thoughts on it are that in RPGs such as FF even though you are constantly levelling up, as you progress and the story progresses creatures you fight will become stronger along with you, this is the kind of thing I think Bethesda has tried to implement in a more sprawling and open environment. Imagine after doing 5 or 6 caves you had reached a point where you outclassed 90% of cave dwelling creatures. This would make a large portion of the game redundant due to the low level creatures and crappy items found on them. I personally wouldn't be happy walking into endless caves and coming out 5 minutes later with 50 gold and a set of armour worth 100 gold having not faced any challenge.
I guess the only other thing to do would be to randomise the difficulty for each cave/ruin etc (incidentally there is a mod out there to do this), although this would add to the realism, the drawback would be that a lot of adventuring/wandering would be very much trial and error with a lot of restarts. The more the game plays out the more proficient you become at blocking/sneaking etc, this in itself makes life a little easier because enemy AI and general awareness doesn't improve even if their damage/armour does. The way that Bethesda has done things means that everytime you enter a dungeon it will be a challenge, there is no copout or way to outlevel everything and simply breeze the game. I want to feel that fear everytime I enter an area and think that they have done a brilliant job. I do miss things like shipwrecks and random treasure at the bottom of lakes etc!

Just my humble opinion, I'm sure I had more to say but I'm heading back in

Psyk said:
But surely the whole point of stats and levelling up is so you get stronger? If enemies stay just as strong compared to you then there's no point in having skills and attributes. You might as well just stay the same the whole way through the game.

As far as combat in general goes, you may be right there but stats improve things such as sneaking, lock picking, weapon repair, blocking and speed all of which help to gradually give you the advantage. As far as I can tell, only armour and health increases as the enemies level up!

Psyk · 1 Apr 2006 at 23:16

Sweetloaf said:
snip

It could just be the same as morrowind where some caves have low level enemies and some have higher level enemies. As your skills improve you can start to take on the higher level caves. In the FF games if you weren't strong enough to do the next bit you could level up a bit so you could do it. Admittedly the enemies levelled up with you in 8 but they didn't get stronger at the same rate.

Sweetloaf · 1 Apr 2006 at 23:53

Psyk said:
It could just be the same as morrowind where some caves have low level enemies and some have higher level enemies. As your skills improve you can start to take on the higher level caves. In the FF games if you weren't strong enough to do the next bit you could level up a bit so you could do it. Admittedly the enemies levelled up with you in 8 but they didn't get stronger at the same rate.

I seem to recall that Morrowind had a similar system of introducing new creatures into the wilderness as you levelled in much the same way as Oblivion does, the problem that it faced was that the main story became very easy if you had done hundreds of random quests and exploring first. If I came across a cave or tomb in Morrowind that was obviously below my level I had a tendency to just leave it unexplored because there seemed little point in doing it. I admit that it is nice to occasionally feel all powerful and leather some easy mobs but ultimately it serves no purpose, at least in Oblivion every chest will have items or cash relevant to your current level. The only way around it would be to have random high level items or lots of cash in low level caves to make it worth playing through them if you stumble across these caves at a higher level than they were designed for. This could seriously unbalance the game though as low level characters would have access to high level items.
To be honest I think that both games have thier positives and negatives, the levelling thing just isn't a big deal for me and not the disaster that some people would have you believe! Each to their own I guess, I'd hate someone to be put off an excellent game because of it

I know that if you weren't high enough level in Final Fantasy you could level up until you were, however this usually involved running around in circle waiting for a random attack...then repeating, although this had it's charm, I think Bethesda are trying to move away from that dull repetition that many RPGs fall foul of.
Incidentally, in FFVIII there was a nice exploit where all you had to do was have a low level character lead your party and enemies that you faced would only be relevant to that character, It didn't take the whole party into consideration

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