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F@32
Village Dweller
Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 20
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| Should I wait for more MODs before buying TESIV? |
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Hi folks! Wanted to hear your advise about: "Should I wait for more MODs before buying TESIV?"
Here's where I'm coming from... Even though I'm not RPG guru, but I can tell that Gothic II was as close to perfection as possible and Morrowing was a bit behind.
Things I liked about Gothic II:
- Very believable environment (running with the torch through Forest at night was spooky as hell)
- Different types of quests
- Combat (God bless Piranha Bytes  )
- PC/NPC animation
- Voice over was OK (except for thick Southern US accent in some instances)
Things I liked about Morrowind:
- Tons of stats
- MODs (I used all Taddeus balancing, Better Bodies, Vibrant Morrowind, and etc.)
- A lot of weapons and armor
- Enchanting/Alchemy
- PC/NPC models (with MODed textures )
From reading these and elderscrolls.com forums I feel that I would need minimum these MODs to make Oblivion enjoyable for me:
1. Fix darn scaling
2. Remove compass
3. NPC's with radar
4. Loot and armor on regular bandits
5. Too bold wildlife (well it's OK for bears to attack you on sight I guess)
6. Anything that I'm missing
Please share your thoughts,
- F@32
_________________
Last candle left to burn now... Before the final darkness comes.
Last edited by F@32 on Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:19 pm; edited 1 time in total |
Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:48 pm |
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Majnun
Village Leader
Joined: 02 Jun 2004
Posts: 89
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Well, I'm a mod junkie...and use a ton of them (mostly small things) to make the game "better" (to me). But I think the game is well worth having even with almost no mods (parts of BTmod & a few small one's are essential tho). I'd advise playing it a while with almost no mods first (some are just essential to me though).
But to address your points:
1. Fix Scaling. > I'm assuming you mean how most (almost all) enemy creatures scale to match your level. If that's what you mean then you will be waiting a LONG time for this to happen in a *real* way. This game is not Gothic 2(or 3) and it never will be. There are already a few mods that remove the scaling completely. But these mods just replace the scaling system with a totally random Oblivion. Meaning you can encounter any level creature anywhere at any time. This is silly in my opinion and is not a fix. Of course you can try it yourself...maybe you'll like it. But to me the only real way to "fix" this would be to remove the leveling but then go through the game and hand-pick EACH and EVERY encounter in each and every dungeon and quest. But doing that will make the game more linear and you have to follow the "path" the mod-maker sets or be killed by too-high lvl creatures. I just don't see that working too well either (if someone tried it). To me Scaling in *this* sense is NOT broken. It's just a *neccessary* design choice to make the game completely free-form and open. If you want to be able to go anywhere at any time this is neccessary. But if you just want the game to be made "random" so any level encounter is possible at all times there are already mods that do this. I think if you try them you'll see why the scaling is neccessary. The way the Gothic game handles it has it's merit too, but I just don't see it really working well transfered onto this game.
2. There are already mods that remove the compass. And lesser one's that keep the compass but remove the little "radar" blips and icons that show up on it. There are also several mods that remove or limit/change fast travel in several ways. This has been "fixed" in every way I can think of.
3. Not sure what you mean by NPCs with radar? The AI doesn't have radar. They have line of sight and being stealthed actually works. There are 2 mods that improve this though. Attack & Hide 2.0 makes it more likely to be able to attack from stealth and then return to a hidden state (realistically). No Psychic Guards lowers the range that guards "hear" an NPC yell to report a crime (so they only come arrest you if they are within hearing range of the NPC reporting you). Other than that I have no clue what you mean...since the AI doesn't have "radar".
4. There are 3 or 4 mods that fix the problem of loot & armor rarirty. Tom Servo's mod & PlasticFoamMan's mod seem to be the best ones. I think Tom Servo's is a little more strict but they're basically the same. They both make high end armor/weapons MUCH rarer.
5. Natural Wildlife 1.3 tweaks the animal AI so that there's a chance that they will flee from you or just be neutral unless you get too close. Some will be aggressive anyway (they might be hungry). There are also a few that just make all animal AI passive. There's also the WCGL Wilderness Lists mod which removes the "scaling" from all animals. So you can still see low level animals at higher levels, but can also see high level animals at low level...and also sometimes in packs. WCGL is great if combined with the Natural Wildlife mod AND a Perception mod that lets you see a creatures strength relative to yours.
6. There are also several mods that redo how the leveling system works in various ways. The main problem for me is that you level too fast (there's a mod that fixes that too). But some completely rework the system. I'd definitely advise playing the game some without using any of those type mods first though.
Another thing I thought of...combat. I've been playing a week and I'm just now actually getting "good" at the combat (and I'm an FPS player too...). The big thing is to *not* let your combat skill(s) lag behind your level (at least until you finish the main quest). If you do, you will die (or have to adjust the difficulty slider). I'd recommend focusing on 1 form of death dealing (either a melee weapon, marksmanship OR destruction) until getting the main quest done. Don't spread yourself too thin trying to keep 2 or 3 of those up or you'll likely regret it. And if you're going to do the main questline at all I'd advise starting it (and doing the Kvatch parts at least) as soon as you possibly can. Kvatch is brutal & unforgiving at higher levels. |
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Wed Apr 05, 2006 8:01 pm |
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Danicek
The Old One
Joined: 15 Dec 2001
Posts: 5922
Location: Czech Republic |
Seems like I have bit different opinion.
I would suggest running the game without any mods the first time through. |
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Thu Apr 06, 2006 7:04 am |
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F@32
Village Dweller
Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 20
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Majnun, I appreciate your thoughts about this. And it looks like there are already plenty of MODs to improve Oblivion greatly.
I appologize if I wasn't clear about some things. I used the "radar" term figuratively. If I understood correctly "Attack & Hide 2.0" and "No Psychic Guards" will eliminate "radar" effect. Under "fix scaling" I meant a system that would prevent/limit all non-essential NPCs from gaining levels with you. This would be more realistc, because I prefer to have some NPCs stay level and face more tougher opponents represented by different class of characters as my PC progresses. For example run of the mill Bandit should be tough at level 1-5, but walk in the park at 10. Think of it as the hierarchy of foes: once you climb the ladder you face equally tough opponents but they are different type: rat -> wolf -> bear -> bandit -> bandit boss -> minataur, something like that...
Regards
_________________
Last candle left to burn now... Before the final darkness comes. |
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Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:34 pm |
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