The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion Tribute Page

Updated 2010-08-05

Contents

• Introduction
• "A Whole World on a DVD"
• My Avatar: Ulkas, the Nord Fighting Maiden
• Diary of Playing Oblivion
• Tweaks
• My System
• Maps
• Links
• Where to Buy

Introduction

There are some spoilers below, so beware.

"A Whole World on a DVD"

Well, that's what it's like after playing for more than 280 hours game time (as of 2008-01-04), and now when I'm done with all documented quests (I've checked), including those in the official expansions, it's a sad feeling having to leave this place for lack of things to do (I said that before Shivering Isles came out, but now I've played that one too).

My Avatar: Ulkas, the Nord Fighting Maiden

She's a pretty Nord called Ulkas (my game avatars are always called Ulkas, whatever the game or gender; old habit from the "real life RPG" days). She started out as a Monk, but now she's probably more like a Warrior or something, yet I've used a lot of sneaking as well. She's also very athletic and strong, as she runs, jumps, rides and swims across the land of Cyrodiil with almost more than she can carry, just for the fun of it.

Ulkas in adventuring/war mode (in Knights of the Nine Crusader armour)

Ulkas in party mode (even though it looks like she wants to punch someone)

Diary of Playing Oblivion

2010-08-05, Getting addicted again

I have to admit I didn't stop playing after completing the main quest line. Instead I've now played most of the guild/faction related quests in the original game as well. The only one remaining, oddly enough, is Fighters Guild (odd as I'm a Warrior). The last Thieves Guild quest (getting the Elder Scroll) is still the best of the lot, hands down.

2010-07-25, Reminiscing

I pondered on the fact that I've played this game since 2006, albeit in intervals, and that it still 'works' as a game (not the least due to all the mods; I believe this is the most modded game ever) and still looks really good.

It was a big step forward graphically when it came out, yet could be played on moderate graphics boards (the same thing couldn't be said about e.g. Crysis), and looks even better on current boards. Considering this and the fact that the Game of the Year edition (that includes the two major expansions, where Shivering Isles is like a full game on its own) sells for $15-$20, it's a huge value. So, if you haven't played it yet and are into RPGs and/or sandbox games, definitely get the GotY edition now!

I actually think that Oblivion has aged better than Fallout 3 (also made by Bethesda, and using the same game technology), that is considerably newer, but is in my opinion uninteresting to re-play due in part to boring environments (how fun is a wasteland in the long run?), boring quests, and hardly any mods. Fallout 3 would probably have been better if the Fallout license hadn't been used, but rather it would have been an original universe.

2010-07-25, Oblivion Speed Run

I re-installed Oblivion Game of the Year Edition (including Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles), without any 3rd-party mods what-so-ever, to see how fast I could play through the main quests up until Martin's demise. This time I was a male Warrior, opting for mostly head-on blade attacks. It took 19 hours, not counting reloading saved games now and then. I did some sub quests too, out of fun, so I probably could have shaved off maybe 1 or 2 hours more, but not more.

I can understand some gamers' criticism of Oblivion being a short and shallow game (not the least compared to Morrowind), considering you are able to play it through at a very low level, skipping all the guild quests etc, like I did now. The first time I played it through I spent maybe 80 to 100 hours before I had completed the main quests, as I was so occupied with all the sub quests.

One interesting thing was that by just installing a smaller game set and no mods I could suddenly play it in 1600 by 1200 with everything set to max and with 4x anti-aliasing, yet with low shadow settings, using my trusty old nVidia 8800 GTS.

2009-12-28

I installed Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (OOO), a collection of mods that contains both general improvements like better balance as well as new quests and areas. I find it hard to get started on new quests, as there's very little guidance as to where to find places etc. Also, some "bosses" are almost impossible to kill. I broke the 3000 saves and 360 hours game play while playing OOO. I'll try some other mods that require OOO as a base. There's one that contains the whole Elsweyr region. Sounds very tempting.

2008-12-29

Dusted off Oblivion and played Hoarfrost Castle, a mod in the same vein as Oblivion's original quests, but with some interesting twists and you get your own castle and teleporter system at the end. Worth a play. This was after I had completed Crysis, Bioshock, Prey, Jericho, Two Worlds (kind of like Oblivion, but with its own personality) and Fallout 3 (kind of like Oblivion too, but after everything's gone to hell). That's a completely different story though.

2008-01-06

Just finished The Lost Spires. It's probably the biggest free mod available. It was both fun and frustrating. Fun, as it gave a new angle to the mythology, and also had some quest twists that were well thought out. Frustrating at times, as the caves/dungeons/ruins are huge. Much bigger than most in the original Oblivion. Also, the foes are very tough (auto-levelled?). Oddly though, the final "boss" was very easy to defeat. I won't tell you how though. Worth playing no doubt, but expect to spend a long time under ground.

2008-01-04

Marksman skill is topped up, so I can paralyze foes with a few arrows. Now trying to top up Athletics, which is way slower (I'm thinking of letting Ulkas swim against a wall or something for an hour...). Also enhancing Speechcraft by playing the Speechcraft mini game with anyone cranky-looking I meet.

2008-01-01

Still struggling with the Marksman skill. It's much slower than topping up Hand-to-hand, so it's getting a bit tedious. The skill is at 95 and I'm at level 40.

2007-12-27

So what to do when I've played through all quests, most caves (actually I found a few unexplored locations, as I've previously simply walked past some, and their names therefore appeared on the map) etc? Top up all major skills of course! As my avatar is a monk, the normal brute force skills are not considered major. Rather marksman, hand-to-hand and some magic are considered important. It was great fun topping up hand-to-hand, as the combat became very much in-the-face and intense, and my armor went busted quite easily. As I'm now a master of armory as well (one of the minor skills), at least I don't need to buy or find any more hammers. Next in line is marksman, and I'm at 75 now (expert), so I can knock down weaker opponents with a single arrow, and by shooting from a distance and in hiding, they in many cases don't know what and who hit them. An issue is all the arrows I lose. I can far from take back as many as I've shot.

One other thing I noted when I play freely, without any goals other than the above and general adventuring, is that I appreciate the scenery much more. At least on Cyrodiil day-time and when it's sunny, the landscape is quite pretty. Overall I'm very impressed by the work put down in this game. I haven't seen anything like it since. Two Worlds I guess comes rather close, but most/all other RPGs are focusing on a main (and one) story line, and a rather narrow scope, and not much else.

The only issue, and it's a quite annoying one, is that all non-NPC animations (like fire, doors opening etc) have become extremely slow and jerky, so I need to wait a very long time for doors to open etc, and spell effects also stay a long time, so I often find myself running around in a haze, even without drinking any mead.

My avatar is at level 39 now, and I guess I will go a bit beyond 40 before I retire my trusty avatar Ulkas.

As NPCs respawn and chests are refilled after a while, I could play forever, but I figure that would be quite insane. The term "get a life" hangs over my head every time I play Oblivion.

2007-11-07

I've just finished playing through all remaining ruins, caves and mines in Cyrodiil and Shivering Isles. Am I crazy or stupid? Feel free to judge. Admittedly, it got a bit repetitive after a while, but I also found some really good ruin/cave/mine designs along the way. In terms of treasure there wasn't much new to find, as I already had the best armor and weapons. Does this mean I can finally put Oblivion to rest? Well, at least until I find a good mod.

I removed the avatar stat pictures below, as no one cares really what stats my avatar has, and they weren't up to date anyway.

I've read in forums that many have played with several different avatars, and that there's now a mod that enables you to switch between different avatars from session to session. I haven't quite figured out why anyone would do that, but it's a sure way to get more playing hours.

2007-07-27

And now for the Crucible Tour, from The Fringe to New Sheoth. Clearly not as colorful as Mania.

Shivering Isles - Crucible Tour

2007-07-26

I've now added screenshots from Shivering Isles. This time only from Mania. I went from The Fringe to New Sheoth and took screenshots along the way.

Shivering Isles - Mania Tour

2007-07-25

I've finished most of the remaining documented quests in Shivering Isles. The ones left were such that I needed to hunt down a specific NPC to find out about them, so it was obvious I had missed out on some of those. I've also been to all dungeons and caves (based on an annotated map I found on the Web), but I still have a few of the "Suicide Hill" skulls to find, if I now bother. Could take forever. Therefor I'm back in Cyrodiil again, doing some random adventuring to places I haven't been before, and on foot. With my new PC I see everything in its full glory, so it's definitely a treat during Cyrodiil day time. I'll remember to take a few photos (sorry, make a few screenshots) when I'm back on Shivering Isles. Mania is strikingly beautiful at places. Unfortunately I still can't activate HDR and AA at the same time, despite the 8800, and I can't make screenshots when AA is activated. Don't know why. 8x AA looks pretty good and doesn't slow the game. I noticed that Oblivion looks best with refresh sync on, as otherwise the tearing can be quite annoying when panning quickly.

2007-07-23

I'm now done with the main quest thread in Shivering Isles, but I have several sub quests piled up that I need to attend to. I did something that made me unable to wear the Crusader armor and weapons. I'm not quite sure what I did wrong. Let's see what happens next.

2007-01-05

Just finished Knights of the Nine (and all the minor quests in that package). A fun addition to Oblivion, but it was over pretty quickly, and it wasn't very challenging either.

I installed a PowerColor X1950 Pro before playing KotN. This is supposedly the best graphics card you can get for AGP bus these days, still "only" $210 (US list price). The card is so large I had big troubles installing it in the PC. I played KotN in 1600 by 1200 with everything activated, including HDR. Looks pretty amazing on a 21" CRT.

Here are some screenshots taken from after playing the KotN quests:

The Frostcrag Spire

The Orrery

Priory of the Nine

My horse with Elven armour

Miscellaneous nice photos ... sorry, screenshots

2006-05-04

I played through a few remaining side quests today: Imperial Bridge Inn and Harm's Folly. Ulkas is now Master of Sneak and Security, so in one cave I was able to sneak past all the inhabitants without a single fight.

The sunset symbolizes I will now take a longer break from playing Oblivion.

Sunset over Cyrodiil

2006-05-02

This is kind of a summary of achievements, as all documented quest threads have been completed. I will now definitely pause playing for a few days.

I just finished the Daedra quests after some trouble with finding the offerings.

Some stats: Ulkas is at level 21 (before applying the boosts from Hermaeus Mora) and is now Gray Fox of the Thieves Guild, Arch-Mage of the Mages Guild, Master of the Fighters Guild, Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, Champion of Cyrodiil, and Master of the Arena, to count the most important titles. I've played for approximately 130 hours (as indicated by saved games; real time maybe 145) and made close to 1200 saves. Could I have spent my time better? Probably, but it was fun.

I've also bought and fully furnished houses in the following cities. For different reasons I didn't succeed buying houses in Chorrol (Ulkas is not trusted) and Skingrad (the key NPC fell through the ground (sic!)).

Anvil I've stored all my loot here (everything in one cupboard, maybe 2 tons worth)

the very spacious cupboard

Bruma rough, but fitting a Nord

Bravil without a doubt the ugliest and smallest of them all

Leyawiin I thought I would get one of the large colored ones...

Here are some more screenshots from recent playing, without comment. Mainly of vistas, as it's hard to make screenshots while fighting, and it's often too dark inside dungeons etc.

2006-05-01

Ulkas is now Arch-Mage of the Mages Guild. The last quest for the Mages Guild was very simple. I'm now continuing with the Daedra quests.

2006-04-30

I solved it! I moved the last saved game to another PC, played it through to the next "room" and then saved again and moved that save game back to my main PC. I also reset oblivion.ini to the factory default settings. Not sure if that helped anything, but it didn't hurt either. Now I've completed the Thieves Guild quests (and am now titled Gray Fox) and I also succeeded getting the Necromancer's Amulet, so I'm off to the final battle for the Mages Guild. That one looks tough though. The final quest for the Thieves Guild was really good! Ulkas is an expert in sneak and security, and with the Skeleton Key from one of the Daedra quests, unlocking doors etc was never a problem. After this there's only some Daedra quests left of the major quests.

2006-04-30

I've had some gaming hiatus lately due to the crashings I've experienced, but now I've completed maybe 2/3 of the Daedric quests and I'm also at the very end of the Thieves Guild quests. Once again I'm at a point where Oblivion crashes to the desktop with no way to circumvent it. As it's at the end of the "Old Way" quest I simply need to move forward, but I can't. Generally this has happened mainly when moving from one environment/room to another. It never happens on open ground. I've now shut off automatic quick-saving on everything, but probably a previous quick-save has corrupted the settings, which people in Oblivion forums have warned about. Hopefully a patch can resolve these issues, as I still can't complete the Mages Guild Necromancer's Amulet quest either.

2006-04-23

Finally found out who had stolen the painting in Chorrol, yet I had guessed right all along. Already on the first Thief Guild quest Oblivion crashes to the desktop, so I simply have to wait for a patch. Replaying large parts of the game is not of interest. I might though play those quests with a new avatar. I have plenty of other things to do outside of the game, so a break is not altoghether bad.

2006-04-21

I've given up about the Mages Guild quests for now (see reason below), so I've been playing through some of the Daedra Shrine quests instead, which has forced me to do nasty things to decent people, and in return I've received some not very useful weapons and armour. I've been told some of the quests will provide me with very strong Daedra armour. My current armour has a total rating of 15, and I haven't found anything that beats that yet.

2006-04-18

I went on "photo safari" today, so here are some pictures. They were captured in 1600*1200 and scaled to 640*480.

Nice view of a chapel.

This guy probably needs to go to the bathroom.

It looked more impressive at 1600*1200.

Mages Guild, where I'm on the way to become Master, if it hadn't been for the crashing bug.

What might he be shoveling? Horse nearby. Hmmm...

Pretty flowers.

A pond with nice water effects.

Is it a good bear or a bad bear?

Answer: A very bad bear.

Ouch!!!! (see the health bar)

Another bear bites the dust.

The lonely road of the adventurer.

Flowers, vines and ... human skulls. That's Oblivion for you.

Nice specular reflections.

Nice detailed armour.

Somewhere in the Imperial City.

Alessia in discussion with some sod outside the picture.

2006-04-16

I'm still struggling with the Mages Guild quests. Now I've encountered a bug that stops me from completing the Necromancer's Amulet quest. Directly after I take the amulet Oblivion crashes. I've tried many times and the same thing occurs every time. I'm not sure how I will get out of this one.

2006-04-15

Ulkas is no longer vampire, so adventuring has become much more consistent (no varying abilities and day-time issues etc). Even though Ulkas is no longer as powerful now, the benefits are obvious when it comes to day-time travelling, seeing the sites in daylight, adhering to quest timing etc. After I finally navigated around the bugs that are in the un-vampirism quest (this can't have been tested properly) I've done a zillion of sub-quests, and I'm now going through the Mage quests. Ulkas is at level 16. What follows are some screenshots I took today and yesterday. Added also two new item duplication pictures to the previous list.

Bruma by noon.

Two nice pictures from Cheydinhal. You can see the Dark Brotherhood well to the right in the first picture.

2006-04-13

Found a bug in the anti-vampirism quest effectively meaning that I can't get cured that way unless I replay the whole quest in the right order. Many have reported this bug. I've installed the "vampire cure in a chest" mod, but I can't find the damn key. Understandably I'm not in the best gaming mood right now. I instead played around with the item duplication bug a bit (yes, another bug, but this one's more fun and useful; see below).

And people say I don't have a heart...

Will he catch me for littering?

I guess this is enough Nightshade flowers...

...and garlic

Strawberries. Mmmm...

2006-04-12

Didn't have much time to play today, but finally I'm on my way to cure Ulkas' vampirism, and the key quests for that have been completed, yet collecting garlic and Nighshade takes forever: So far I've found one Nightshade. The drawback of becoming normal again is the less weight Ulkas will be able to carry, so I have to plan carefully. I've decided to go for a long day-time hitch-hike (on horse of course) across Cyrodiil once Ulkas is cured. Then it's probably off to perform the Daedric quests, as I've heard there's good loot at the end of them.

2006-04-11

I've collected 60 Nirnroots by running around all the coast lines of southern Cyrodiil. I just got three potions out of that, so it was a bit of a waste. At least I got to see the sites and completed some side quests while there. Ulkas runs so fast now that all enemies encountered on the way could easily be outrun.

2006-04-10

I couldn't stop playing (aargh!) so I'm now member of the Dark Brotherhood and has risen to the level of Listener, which is as far as I can go there. I made enemies in the process and can no longer pray at the altar in the chapels, so beware before you get involved with the Dark Brotherhood. I'm lacking one Grand Soul Gem to get cured from vampirism, and empty ones are pretty hard to find. I'm at level 13 now.

2006-04-09

I've now advanced to Master of the Fighters Guild, so I'm done with Fighters Guild contracts. Beyond that I've reached Arena Grand Champion, Champion of Cyrodiil, Blades Knight Sister, and Associate of the Mages Guild. I will pause playing for at least a day now (more important things to do). Searching for Nirnroot doesn't sound that very exciting, so curing vampirism seems like a better priority. I've played for too long during night, and I'm longing to see the grand vistas, and also take some nice screenshots. The ogre issue was my brain melt: I mistook one creature type for another.

2006-04-08

I'm now Grand Champion of the Arena and Defender of the Fighters Guild. Suddenly all are kind to me (not real people, I mean Oblivion people). I'm now stuck rescuing a maiden from ogres. I suspect a glitch, because when I took her back to her father he still said that I should save her.

2006-04-07

My goal now is to become Master of the Fighters Guild. Curing vampirism is on hold for the moment.

2006-04-04

Mehrunes Dagon is finally defeated (Martin did it, not me), so I'm off to other adventures now. Must cure my vampirism first, but to do so I must perform a string of sub quests.

2006-04-01

I've played through most (?) of the main thread and some side quests (after 30+ hours), and I'm now in Camoran's Paradise fighting Mr. Camoran and his kin. I realize my avatar is too weak, or I've missed something, as Camoran can increase his health continuously, making it impossible to floor him. Even if he didn't I would get slammed by the others. Maybe I have to evolve my avatar more before I take on Camoran, which means I have to replay the Paradise level again (which sucks a bit).

2006-03-24

Just got the Collector's Edition of Oblivion (on the first day it was available in Sweden). I wondered for a while whether it would be worth the extra money to get the extras in that edition, but as I will probably play this game for a long time I think it was worth it. I'm running about in Tamriel right now, following the main thread and at the same time exploring dungeons and ruins I stumble upon. Graphics are very good, physics are good, stealth is good, but performance is not so good. I probably haven't tweaked all settings yet, but on my 2.4G/1GB/9700 Pro PC especially complex magic effects slows the game to a crawl. Except for that it's fairly smooth, and the game still looks good at my lower settings.

Tweaks

These tweaks are for the PC version.

Beyond the settings you can make in the game, there's also a user-editable file called oblivion.ini that's stored in your My Documents\My Games folder. Caution is advised when editing that file, yet I've found certain settings beneficial. A complete run-down of what tweaks can be made is available at TweakGuides - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Tweak Guide. Specifically oblivion.ini is described under Advanced Tweaks. There you will also find more detals about why the settings make sense.

What follows are the settings I use, and that are different from the original file. I exclude settings that are made via the game itself. All settings below exist already in oblivion.ini, but with different values. You decide if they make sense to you. If you have a top-notch system you most likely can skip the performance-increasing settngs.

My System

Today

I got me a new PC right before I started playing Shivering Isles, so now I can have most things turned on. For the most part I've played with anti-aliasing and blooming switched on rather than HDR. I wish Bethesda would make a patch that supports the combination of AA and HDR, as both are essential to the experience of Oblivion. It works fine to have the screen at 1600 by 1200, but I've read that the 320 MB version of the 8800 GTS is at its memory roof at that resolution, so I recommend the 640 MB version. By now though it's way better to get the 8800 GT. I haven't used any overclocking yet, as I found it increases the fan noise. The same applies as before: no e-mail or other "lively" software should be running in the background. It's enough they access the hard drive and you'll notice it in the game. I was happy I got rid of the 21" CRT, that was amazingly bulky and heavy. The 20" LCD screen is actually exact same size as the 21" CRT, so I didn't step down in screen size at all.

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 2.13 GHz
• Gainward/nVidia 8800 GTS 320 MB
• 2 GB RAM
• 1 TB hard drive
• 2 DVD burners
• Sony 20" 1600 by 1200 LCD

Before

The first PC I used for playing Oblivion was not advanced by today's standards by any means, so I constantly tweaked the game video settings to either get high performance or beautiful landscapes. As the game is relatively slow paced it still worked OK. With the X1950 I used while playing Knights of the Nine it was a totally different story, where it's only sometimes stuttering. Many have complained about low performance on ATi cards, but even on the 9700 Pro it worked qute fine with the right tweaks. There were problems with anti-aliasing (AA) though. If I had it activated, some spell animations made the frame rate on the 9700 drop to one frame per 3 seconds or something, so I needed to have it turned off. That was also the case for the X1950, as HDR is not supported with AA activated, and even when I turned HDR off the performance of the game decreased substantially with AA on. It's a pity, as the game looks considerably better with e.g. 4xAA. Also I closed all running applications before running Oblivion, to get max free RAM and not be disturbed by email and IM. As the X1950 constantly crashed the PC I had to let it go and get me a new PC (see above).

• Intel P4 2.4 GHz
• While playing the base Oblivion game: ATi 9700 Pro, set to 1024 by 768, no anti-aliasing, max distance, but low settings on tree fade etc and grass set to none; I also tweaked the oblivion.ini file for performance
• While playing Knights of the Nine: PowerColor ATi X1950 Pro AGP, set to 1600 by 1200, everything turned on, except anti-aliasing; in crowded areas I sometimes had to lower viewing distance
• 1 GB RAM
• Sony 21" CRT

Maps

These maps are geological (similar to the Morrowind maps), focusing on landmarks, and showing no names etc. They are intended to create a feeling for the nature of Cyrodiil and for finding small roads, ponds etc that are not visible on the standard map. The maps are based on the Landscape LOD Texture Replacement textures made by Shaja. I also have the maps in original (100%) resolution, but those files are too big to put here. If you ask nicely I can send you the larger files. Note though that the scalable map at UESP is much more detailed, but unfortunately not downloadable.

There are lots of other types of maps for download at the sites listed below.

Cyrodiil		Cyrodiil and Beyond
1024 by 1024 pixels (12.5%)		1536 by 1536 pixels (12.5%)
2048 by 2048 pixels (25%)		3072 by 3072 pixels (25%)

Links

There are tons of mods and advice. Here's a sampling of what's out there.

• Bethesda - The Elder Scrolls
• Cyrodiil Chronicles
• ElderScrolls-Oblivion.com
• Gamespot - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• Oblivion Source
• Planet The Elder Scrolls
• The Avid Alchemist’s Obliv-o-Map
• The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages - Oblivion
• TweakGuides.com - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Tweak Guide

Where to Buy

I recommend the Standard Edition of the game. You don't get any significant extras in the Collector's Edition and you save some money. Oblivion is in my opinion a must-buy, and especially the new Game of the Year edition, but check your PC specs beforehand.