What art thou playing milord? Ye Olde Thread 3.0

[kungtotte]

Yes, the auto-leveling is a big source of conflict with Oblivion. It doesn't bother me all that much for the majority of things, when I'm doing big mini-boss-type quests I don't care if the enemies are level appropriate. What bugs me is when you start running into fucking minotaurs in the forest instead of bears, boars and wolves.

There are mods to take care of it though, I recommend looking at TES Nexus.

[Red Templar]

Yes, the auto-leveling is a big source of conflict with Oblivion. It doesn't bother me all that much for the majority of things, when I'm doing big mini-boss-type quests I don't care if the enemies are level appropriate. What bugs me is when you start running into fucking minotaurs in the forest instead of bears, boars and wolves.

There are mods to take care of it though, I recommend looking at TES Nexus.

Thank you. I will check this out. Although, I assume the mods are only for the PC based version of the game. Mine is on PS3. :(

[kungtotte]

Ah, missed the part about it being on PS3. Not sure what you'd do then. You could always avoid sleeping to avoid leveling up, your skills will continue to level up however, and the auto-leveling is tied to your character's level.

[Poobah]

I recently picked up Oblivion - The Elder Scrolls IV for my PS3. It was $15 at Disc Exchange, a very awsome deal.

Initially, I was very impressed. The world was very detailed and there were a lot of choices amongst races, classes, etc. The word "robust" comes to mind.

However, after playing and levelling up a few times, I've noticed something very disturbing - when I level up, the whole damn world levels with me. It really runis the point of levelling and acquiring more powerful stuff, if you ask me. Anybody else notice this? Does it bother you as much as it bothers me? I'm having a hard time summoning up the urge to play anymore because of this.

Yes, pretty much every single thing in the entire freaking game is leveled to you.

Play Morrowind instead, it's much better and you should be able to get the PC version with both expansions for Very Little Indeed.

-Poobs

[Werthead]

I finally managed to buy Medieval II (Gold Edition). Installation running at the moment *jumps up and down*

Excellent. Remember to check out the Westeros and Third Age mods ;)

However, after playing and levelling up a few times, I've noticed something very disturbing - when I level up, the whole damn world levels with me. It really runis the point of levelling and acquiring more powerful stuff, if you ask me. Anybody else notice this? Does it bother you as much as it bothers me? I'm having a hard time summoning up the urge to play anymore because of this.

Yes. Everyone who's ever played the game ;) As has been said, there are PC patches that fix this issue but with the console versions you are left with it.

To be honest, I played through Oblivion with the level-scaling on and it was ludicrous but didn't impair my enjoyment of the game. I tried it with the level-scaling patched and realised it was actually less fun not to be able to wander around the landscape without getting twatted in the head by a passing high-level demon. So people's mileage on this varies.

[haLobEnder]

The level-scaling thing happened in Fallout 3 too, didn't it? I didn't have a problem with it in that game so as long as it's similar here it shouldn't bother me too much. I've just gotten to the point where random wolves and bears are being replaced by trolls.

How many houses are there to buy in the game? Any that I can get on the cheap? I'm tired of sleeping at inns :P

[Shryke]

The level-scaling thing happened in Fallout 3 too, didn't it? I didn't have a problem with it in that game so as long as it's similar here it shouldn't bother me too much. I've just gotten to the point where random wolves and bears are being replaced by trolls.

How many houses are there to buy in the game? Any that I can get on the cheap? I'm tired of sleeping at inns :P

I believe in Fallout 3 though, the way it works is that when you first enter the area it is set to your level, but it STAYS at that level for the rest of the game.

So if you go to place X at level 5, it will be level 5 and will stay level 5 for the whole game.

If in another game you don't go to place X till level 15, it will now be level 15 there and stay that way for the whole game.

[kungtotte]

Fallout 3 also doesn't replace one kind of spawn with another. If it's a super mutant spawn you will get super mutants, super mutant brutes or super mutant masters in that area. If it's a rad scorpion spawn it'll be rad scorpions or giant rad scorpions, they won't be replaced by giant ant queens and so on and so forth.

I believe there is a house to buy in every city except Imperial City, and down by Leyawiin there's a quest you can do that will get you a hunting lodge just outside the city for free but I forget the particulars (I'm also quite drunk). I'd go for Leyawiin if I were you, I think you can just get in on that quest whenever, but for the other houses you need to do quests for the Lords and Ladies before they trust you enough to sell.

[Humble Asskicker]

To be honest, I played through Oblivion with the level-scaling on and it was ludicrous but didn't impair my enjoyment of the game. I tried it with the level-scaling patched and realised it was actually less fun not to be able to wander around the landscape without getting twatted in the head by a passing high-level demon. So people's mileage on this varies.

I used to wonder what kind of audience would actually like the level-scaling.

I remember the first time I played Oblivion. I was blown away. The combat, the adventure - it was terrific fun. It was challenging, but the awesome kind of challenge. Many near death experiences that I just barely made it through, and the occasional battle that was hard enough that I had to reload three times to complete it, but I did get it down. It was perfect. I played almost sixty hours doing all the main side quests before I did anything at all with the main quest.

The moment I started on that, the difficulty level seemed to spontaneously soar. I couldn't get through a single minor battle without buffing up my character with my best spells and potions, and even then I had to dedicate lots of time drawing each individual enemy from the group, one by one. Battle, rest, and repeat. And it was still iffy whether I could succeed. It became this incredibly turgid, tedious affair that was not fun in the least.

But I persevered until my first incursion into Oblivion. At that point it was impossible to continue on normal difficulty. I spent five hours trying different tactics to enter the gate and not immediately die. I was bombarded with Daedric lords and all the highest level enemies, and they annihilated my ass.

It felt cheap to turn the difficulty down though. It felt unbalanced. Enemies were either way too easy or still way too difficult.

Little did I realize at that time that leveling up intuitively or playing without a walkthrough that directs you instantly to the best weapons in the game virtually assures that it is impossible to complete on normal difficulty.

And that's not even touching on the issue of no sense of progression.

This isn't a criticism of those who like the system, by the way. I just like to take every opportunity to bash the game for the fiercely dedicated stupidity of the system itself. Vanilla Oblivion is like an autistic-savant. Just as you are appreciating its genius suddenly it shits itself and carries on like that's proper behavior.

[Shryke]

The level scaling was an attempt to keep you from out-leveling the content, which makes everything no fun. It didn't work as well as they'd hoped.

I think their next attempt at it with the Fallout 3 model is much closer to an ideal system.

[kungtotte]

Yeah, Fallout 3 is definitely approaching Done in terms of auto-leveling opponents, basically just needs some tweaks here and there to make it good. And much of those tweaks are on the level of content creators defining monster spawns properly, rather than changing the system in source code.

ETA

That's not to say the system is the be-all, end-all, just that it works well for what it is in Fallout 3.

[Alcibiades]

Just picked up Republic Commando on Steam. I'm eager to give it some quality time this weekend. I don't suppose anyone knows how to make it run widescreen?

[Jon AS]

I don't suppose anyone knows how to make it run widescreen?

Apparently Google knows.

[Alcibiades]

Apparently Google knows.

Yeah, I found that thread. It's about the demo, which is apparently a little different. You'll notice that thread is from February of '05, while the game didn't come out until March. If you click through to the link to another thread on the same site, you'll see complaints that it doesn't work on the full version.

Even so I'll try messing with the ini file. Maybe a later patch changed things, since that thread is from 2005. I was just hoping to get an affirmitive answer before I went editing .ini files.

Sigh. PC gaming. I used to enjoy such fiddling. But I don't have the time/patience anymore.

[Jon AS]

Yeah, I found that thread. It's about the demo, which is apparently a little different.

Bah, why the hell did they change something that basic from the demo?

Anyway, I'll post something on topic for a change:

Spend the last couple of weeks overdosing on Europa Universalis 2 (with AGCEEP mod), usually setting myself some kind of goal with a particular country and then abandoning that game once I had achieved it. Plenty of fun, but I fear I'm somewhat burned out on it now.

So, inspired by kurokaze, I went and checked whether my Sentinel/Bastion character in Mass Effect still kicked ass, which turned out to be the case. Now I started a new run through as an Infiltrator. I'm not sure I can handle doing all those mind numbing side missions again, but I'm a compulsive completionist...

[Serious Callers Only]

Going to replay bloodlines probably.

Fucking shit games nowadays.

Shit gamers too.

[emberling]

Going to replay bloodlines probably.

Best idea I've heard all month.

[Rhaco]

How many houses are there to buy in the game? Any that I can get on the cheap? I'm tired of sleeping at inns :P

The house in the Imperial City is by far the cheapest. It looks like shit, but who cares. If you buy the storage upgrade you'll have 4 non-respawning containers to store stuff in. Everything I ever found in the game is in those containers in that house -- one for weapons, one for armor and enchanted jewelry, one for potions and ingredients, and the last for everything else.

[Le Communard]

Spend the last couple of weeks overdosing on Europa Universalis 2 (with AGCEEP mod), usually setting myself some kind of goal with a particular country and then abandoning that game once I had achieved it. Plenty of fun, but I fear I'm somewhat burned out on it now.

Dude, you play Europa Universalis? Awesome. I love that game (and pretty much everything else by Paradox too). It's a shame no one has heard of them. You should really get three though--everyone I talked to says it's a huge improvement, and you can score the Complete version pretty cheap on Gamers Gate now a days. Spend some time learning on vanilla, but what really makes the game great is the Magna Mundi mod, which, to put it in perceptive, comes with its own 100 page manual. There about to release a totally revamped version soon too, and it looks to be one of the greatest time killers ever devised by man. Check it out--you won't regret it.

[Jon AS]

Dude, you play Europa Universalis? Awesome. I love that game (and pretty much everything else by Paradox too). It's a shame no one has heard of them. You should really get three though--everyone I talked to says it's a huge improvement, and you can score the Complete version pretty cheap on Gamers Gate now a days. Spend some time learning on vanilla, but what really makes the game great is the Magna Mundi mod, which, to put it in perceptive, comes with its own 100 page manual. There about to release a totally revamped version soon too, and it looks to be one of the greatest time killers ever devised by man. Check it out--you won't regret it.

I don't recall exactly why I never got EU3. I remember reading that there were no big, historic events that influence the gameplay. I usually enjoy those in EU2 (hence my love for the AGCEEP mod, which adds a ton of those) even if they can be a bit deterministic at times (particularly bad when playing the Ottomans. I can have a perfectly run country with a healty economy and then I get an event which makes massive inflation and widespread unrest completely unavoidable. Bah).

I'll look into that Magna Mundi mod, thanks.