Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

Uriel said:

I haven't played vanilla skyrim since it came out but I loved it then. Now with a good modlist nothing can compare. I have big hopes that this will be the next big game to mod though.

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For it's time it was great. MMOs were getting too exclusive towards the hard core poop sockers and that allowed single player RPGs to stage a comeback.

Caliane said:

(pretty important when using the skylight fix, as all the interiors are also super dark. and shaded. ha.)

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That mod got updated to tweak the values a bit more. I don't really see a huge difference outdoors, but interiors seem a bit brighter since they actually do depend on the skylight variable too.

Caliane said:

I'm also still not seeing the "skrym is dumbed down" argument. as far as i can tell, Skyrim really is just a near universal improvement on all fronts.

pretty sure "repeatative caves" as an accusation at skyrim, but they are even more so here. theres way less discoveries and storytelling in the random caves and forts I've explored so far.

That itself. caves, forts, ayleid ruins. over and over.
Skryim POI were also more diverse.

and they seem to just be scattered periodically. gently rolling hills. not the "real" geography of skyim, with switchbacks, and other interesting geography.

skyrims guild quests did suck balls. don't get me wrong on that one.. do seem more coherent so far here.

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Skyrim's world is larger and more fleshed out but the gameplay is reduced in depth compared to the earlier games. Not just mechanics but also in some side quests. As an example, becoming arch mage is far easier in Skyrim than it is in Oblivion.

Both are worth playing but I wouldn't mind Skyrim's world design with some of the earlier games' RPG depth. It didn't even start with Skyrim, a reduction in depth is a long time trend in Elder Scrolls games.

Lambourne said:

Skyrim's world is larger and more fleshed out but the gameplay is reduced in depth compared to the earlier games. Not just mechanics but also in some side quests. As an example, becoming arch mage is far easier in Skyrim than it is in Oblivion.

Both are worth playing but I wouldn't mind Skyrim's world design with some of the earlier games' RPG depth. It didn't even start with Skyrim, a reduction in depth is a long time trend in Elder Scrolls games.


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That lays it out really well. The quality of life features are great but the world feels so much more shallow.

I’ve always felt like voice acting hurt RPGs. Once studios started making every NPC fully voiced you started to see fewer NPCs with a lot less to say in games. In oblivion NPCs have a few lines of dialogue. In Morrowind they’re dropping paragraph after paragraph of conversation.

Zaide said:

In Morrowind they’re dropping paragraph after paragraph of conversation.

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Thank god games have gotten away from this.

Games should be interactive. Reading a novel isn't "interactive". At that point, you're actually just reading a book, not really playing a game. It's one of the reasons I never really had the love for Planescape: Torment that most do.

Much of that is stupid and pointless though.
less diseases. its not like oblivion, etc was really doing anything with each. it was all just "cure disease". if we did have to ID type of disease by symptoms. maybe. if we had to match cures to disease type. maybe. Maybe if the MEANS of you catching diseases varied as well. like, swimming in water, sleeping outdoors, eating the wrong foods, opening dungeon chests, picking mushrooms, etc. (this was a thing in morrowind from what I understand)

skyrim doesn't have a single mega city. no shit? the individual cities are typically a bit larger then oblivion ones.

spell effects. again, most are totally useless. oh no. I lost "drain".
fortify attributes go here too. as, again. its not like the games were really using attributes in any meaningful way. Kenshi and path of exile do attributes well.
removing attributes, which were not meaningfully being utilized is fine. much of the reduced spell effects, and custom spells are directly tied to this.

less skills. hand to hand is actually better in skyrim, as its supported by enchantments, and heavy armor perk, unlike oblivion. so saying its not a skill is stupid.
speechcraft/mechantile was combined. again.. so?
one handed weapons were all merged together. same with 2h.
and without perks, its not like those skills really meant much.
no athletics. again, its not like it did much. its effects were just moved to other things anyway.
no mysticism. again, spells mostly just merged into resto/alt/illusion.

Custom spell creation. meh. it largely seems to be a relic of lacking quickwheels, and favorites. Skyrim DOES have it. dual wielding spells. that is the replacement. left hand/right hand, or both to empower a single spell to be stronger.
and don't get me wrong. its like the perk system. syrim's perk system is better. but...its also still totally shit, completely underutilized. I suppose the perks also do take the place of custom spells in many ways.
"bound weapons cast soul trap on targets" for example.
But it is mostly stupid shit like, extra duration, etc. how about instead of just "summoned undead have 100 more hp." its, summoned undead are heros. with better armor, weapons, and skills?
"destruction spells impact" "frost spells paralyze", "shock disintergrates", "fire causes terror' are all good ones. and also examples of how "custom spells" still actually exists, its just here.

(again, not considering Morrowind. even in the short time there, I see a number of things that I would like to see brought back. but at the same time, people totally gloss over a ton of things morrowind didnt have as well. like npcs being static in it. merchants never move. arrows vanish. mounts, etc)


the only things in Oblivion I notice as standouts are, acrobatics skill effecting jump height. being able to craft potions via tools, and multiple tools to effect power. skyrim guild quest suck of course. feather spell. replaced with Lydia I suppose. (its on gear in skyrim, not a spell.) the silly zoom in effect while talking to someone. (as much as people meme on this, and as much as skyrims, is more "immersive" I think people actually love this). fatigue effecting spells. (they removed this in the remaster for some reason.) guild quests are better.

skrym added back in lycanthorpy.
expanded followers greatly.
expanded perks greatly.
more towns/villages/farmsteads.
far more diverse poi.
massive amounts of QoL at every level. as bad as skyrims ui was.. its still leagues better then oblivions. favorites, quickcasting, etc. people are modding the remaster already, as even its UI improvements aren't enough. finding spells/items in the menu is a slog.
smithing.
Roleplay/survival mode friendly fast travel,. Carriages.
significantly expanded random events. (the biggest issue here was their trigger locations were a bit too obvious.) Skyrim:World Interactions - The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP)
fixed bound leveling system.
expanded powers, via dragonshouts. stuns, teleport, faster attack, etc.
expanded havoc physics.
is marriage only skyrim?
alch loop returns.
learning ingredient effects by eating. a silly but fun immersive effect.
no weapon durability.
off hand block, main hand attack. shield bash.
dual wield. again this is why all the weapon skills were merged/reworked. 1h, 2h. so you could 1h dw a sword/axe, etc.
as noted. bare handed is actually more supported in skyrim, with heavy armor perk, and enchanted items.
bows actually have hidden draw/arrowspeed/damage mechanics. (which is again something that should have been expanded on in perks more. slow, heavy 1 shot bows, versus fast run and gun bows, and perks.)
merchants actually have gold inventories. which can be depleted.
location based crime. (which could be greatly improved on still)
most crimes need a witness.
I think deadric quests in skyrim are better though. merida's in oblvion is just, "go kill that 1 room of necromancers 20ft away" everyone shits on skyrims guild quests, no one mentions the deadric quests being better.
can throw things with telekinesis.
dragons. (and not just a meme. think about the extra work for flying, landing on perches, the random attacks, attacking villages, the crash landings.)

and sure there are things in Oblivion that I see has neat ideas, but are wholly underused or busted. such as the spell crafting, attribute gain based on skills used, haggling, many of the useless spell effects, spells, diseases as noted.
the easy to obtain hard capped attributes are terrible. underrail(attributes at start, +5 or so while leveling. breakpoints to unlock perks.), mount and blade(+1 every four levels. gates total skill level), kenshi (no cap to attributes, gained by doing. dimishing returns on exp gain. )
by being easy to obtain and capped, they may as well not exist. kenshi is the closest, and the best direct fit. we have learn by doing for attributes. (not on level up.). we give a soft cap, and dimishing returns on attribute value. so, we can get 200-300 str. but, +15 str when you have 50 would be far more then +15 str when you have 300 already.


Does Oblivion even have location based quests like the Falmer lighthouse, witch shack, or archery teacher like Skyrim?
I suppose I did come across a farm one. that counts. but again, there is WAY more of that shit in skyrim.

pretty sure skyrim has way more monster types too.


like look. on the surface it may look like oblvion has more undead. but, most of that is just leveled versions.
skeleton, zombie, ghost, wraith, lich is the base. 5 types. with 4 types of skel, 3 types of zombie, 2 ghosts, 3 wraiths,.

while, skyrim has dragon priests, draugr, ghost, skeleton, zombie. also 5 base times. (ignoring DG, and CC stuff.)
but.. those ALSO have leveled variants, or type varients.
druagr are male/female. they have warrior/warlocks, in addition to leveled variants. 10 kinds.

or goblins. 5 kinds in oblivion, leveled.
lets look at falmer in skyrim...
melee fighters, melee bosses, archers, shaman, spell swords, spellsword bosses.
then each of THOSE have 5 leveled variants. (skulker, gloomlurker, night prowler, shadowmaster.) so, 30 kinds of Falmer.

oblivion does have more daedre.
but skryim has dwarven automations, and general monsters. 12 general monsters. compared to oblivions 7. and that is not even including the leveled versions. only the minotaur in oblivion has a minotaur lord variant.
6 kinds of dragons in skyrim alone.

sleevedraw said:

A script extender has been released.

As usual, support is only for the Steam version.

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It's really not a "script extender" at this point. Because of the conflicting UE5 and Gamebryo layers they can't really do a whole lot at all yet.

People with the Game Pass version aren't missing out on anything of importance right now, but it could change eventually. When someone makes a spell deletion mod and it requires OBSE, then I'll be sad.

Rajaah said:

Got a noob-ass question, as someone with very little PC gaming experience:

How do the Morrowind expansions work? Tribunal and Bloodmoon were on separate disks from the main game. I installed all 3 of them separately, and need the disc for the main game to be in the system while playing. When the main game gets to where I can go to one of the expansions, will it prompt me to put that disc in while in that area? Or is it a situation where the expansions are their own game(s), and you just load your character from the main game to play them separately?

Haven't even had a chance to do anything with it yet this week but I might give it a whirl tonight. Usually went with a Battlemage type character in the old ESes, will probably aim for something similar here.

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I can't recall if Morrowind did this but most games around that time offered the option to do a partial install or a full install, this refers to leaving some of the data on the CD instead of copying it all to HD. You'll always want to do a full install because it will save a lot in loading times.

With that done, you should just need the main CD in the drive and it's just a copy protection feature at that point. What people used to do was get a cracked version of the main .exe called a "No CD" that let you play without the CD. If you get the steam/gog version it should be patched out already. You can also use Daemon Tools to create a virtual drive and mount a copy of the CD in that so it will think the CD is present there.

morrowind and oblivion had the ability to pick classes. which were just preselected major/minor skills. or, create your own.
skyrim did get rid of that. no major/minor. and 100% create your own.

Caliane said:

The Local map issue has a minor work around.
if you press M, or the down d-pad to open up the Map, its always zoomed out.
however, when opening Tab/menu, it opens to the last Screen you had open. which can include the Local map. this can speed up dungeon crawls nicely.
(the problem is of course if you are also using tab/menu to access the spelllist, to cast all those extra spells.)

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Just noticed that there are mods to fix the local vs. global map jank. This one seems to be the best solution:


Requires UE4SS, but that program works just fine with the Game Pass release.

Rajaah said:

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I did it, ten years after I beat Arena and Daggerfall, I finally started Morrowind. Made my own class, as you're supposed to do with these old ESes.

Oblivion and Skyrim still have classes or am I remembering right that they did away with all that to just have one omni-class that develops based on what you use?

Only thing I don't like about Morrowind is how damn brown everything is. Other than that, great game so far, spent like 2 hours creating a character and then another hour just talking to people in Seyda Neen. Even random NPCs have interesting dialogue. Everybody should check out Morrowind if they missed it, it exudes quality. More importantly, it steps back and just lets you play how you want, no hand-holding here.

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Morrowind def felt the most immersive of any Elder Scrolls games I’ve played

one detail I always loved was how when you were in the Imperial Legion, you had to be wearing an Imperial armor chest piece in order to get orders, the game made you roleplay.

also, it’s not enough to complete missions to rise in ranks for the various factions, you also had to have the necessary skill levels to be promoted