I played FO3 first. In some epic FO3 threads I heard a lot of people criticising Oblivion’s NPC levelling system. For this reason I held off from getting it.
One day I decided to bite the bullet and get it. I’ve also got the levelling patch.
My question is this: I’ve installed Nights of the Nine, and Shivering Isles.
I’m playing oblivion and my current quest is about the nine.
At this moment I’m stood in a room with the ghosts of the nine
Does this mean I’m actually playing the expansion pack? (IS NoN just an added quest? Not that that’s a bad thing)
ETA: I grew sick and tired of the tedious conversations you had to have with people in FO3. This means I am already sick of them in Oblivion. And they’re worse (mystical old timey language and names. I swear I don’t actually pay much attention to them)
Even though I’d installed all three games (O, NoN, and SI) my intention was to do them in order. So I’ve started doing NoN by mistake. But that’s ok. I’ll just carry on, and when the ‘quest’ is done I’ll carry on with Oblivion.
So how does SI begin? (or is that too much of a spoiler for a beginner to this game such as I am?)
You will be sent a message about a strange island that has appeared in the river. If you don’t go to that island (and you’re guaranteed to recognise it for what it is), you won’t accidentally do the Shivering Isles quests.
I had got the mace of the crusader. And then defeated some shiny gold dudes. Then an armoured bloke talked to me and I accepted his request to join the order. He buggered off to get some better gear and so far I haven’t seen him again. (it’s been about a day since) What’s the deal? I can’t really go back because I’ve saved the game a few times since.
You should receive a note about the strange island one game day after leaving the introductory dungeon; it will arrive in the form of a popup quest update. You mentioned using a “levelling patch”… there isn’t an official patch that affects levelling or levelled lists, but there are several player-made mods that affect either or both. What’s the name of the mod you’re using? It’s possible it changes how and when your character finds out about Shivering Isles. Some mods also suppress popup quest updates, so it’s possible you have the quest and just don’t know it.
He’ll be back at the end; your newly assembled Knights gather at the Priory, then assault Garlas Malatar to enable you to smite Umaril the Unfeathered with the relics that you’ve been questing for.
The Shivering Isles you can do when you want, you should get a note about ‘A Strange Door’ (you may have missed it) and see on your map that there’s a marker in the Niben (“A Strange Door”) next to Bravil. Enter the door there to start the SI questline. You can freely travel back to Cyrodiil, most of the time.
This Oblivion wiki will likely answer any and all question you’ve ever wanted to know about the game, including how to fix glitches, walkthroughs and the like: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page
Sounds like Shivering Isles isn’t installed correctly then, or somehow got disabled. When you run the Oblivion launcher, click the Data Files option - you should see a DLCShiveringIsles.esp in the list of data files. Make sure the box is checked to have it load with the game; I believe that’s done by default when the expansion is installed, but it’s possible it got unchecked at some point. If you don’t see it there, then it isn’t installed correctly. If it IS checked and you still don’t get any Shivering Isles update in the game, then you have another mod suppressing Shivering Isles, likely until some other game condition is met. As mentioned above, whichever “levelling patch” you’re using may be the culprit in that case.
Ah, I haven’t used Francesco’s, I tried Oscuro’s (OOO) when I went for an Oblivion re-vamp. The readme for Francesco’s doesn’t indicate it changes the starting conditions for Shivering Isles, although it’s possible they put a level requirement on it since the readme indicates SI is now best for a level 9+ character (vanilla SI scales down to level 1).
One way to test the issue is to disable the three Francesco plugins you have active, make a new character, get out of the starter dungeon, and wait for a day (use the “wait” feature). If you get the “Strange Door” quest update, then it’s Francesco’s blocking it for your other character. If you don’t, then there’s an issue with your SI installation. Either way, make sure to re-enable the Francesco mods before you load your old character again, or you will lose items specific to the mod (and may crash, if your character is in an area dependent on the mod).
I googled the problem and found other people have the same problem.
The solution was to go to the place where the strange door is (even though it’s not marked on the map it’s easy because you can see the island from the water’s edge) and I got the quest as soon as I set foot on the island.
I hope you don’t mind if I piggy-back my question on top of yours, but we seem to have some seasoned Oblivion players here. I bought a $4200 computer to play the game when it first came out, I was really excited about it. But the hassle of finding, updating, managing addons got to be too much, and the game was buggy and difficult to play without them, so I gave up on it, before I even got to play SI.
I’ve thought about coming back to it on a fresh machine, but I dread the addons and the addons designed to manage the addons. Has anyone come up with a single good, all-purpose one to correct the errors, maybe increase inventory capacity, fix the leveling, etc.? One that’s currently maintained, rarely updated, and well-tested?
I always played with an addon to give me limitless carrying, because the idea of having to return to sell loot 2-3 times per dungeon was crazy. And there are enough errors in the game to sink a ship. I never had a problem with leveling, but maybe an all-purpose addon would change that too, so I’m open to it.
Yes and I’ve experience no problems that would warrant me having to download any add-ons. But then again, I suppose maybe I’m more laid back about my gaming and also, I play on the XBOX. Perhaps that version is better?
I’ve never experienced the default levelling. I’ve only heard from other Oblivion players. All whom listed it as a down side (compared to Fallout 3 - The thread in which the two games were being compared). But from the way it sounds…
Enemies level up at the same time/rate/level as you…
I think I’d hate it. What would be the point of levelling if all the enemies remain just as hard? It’s moving the goalposts.
I like the way FO3 handles it - when you level up you’re introduced to harder enemies. So the game doesn’t become too easy.
Also, higher levels in FO3 enable you to explore more dangerous places. Whereas in Oblivion, from what I can tell, you could pretty much go everywhere at level 1.
The problem with Oblivion wasn’t scaled mobs but scaled gear. Open the same chest or complete the same quest at different levels, and it’ll give you a different item. Where you’ll find a rusty iron sword at level 1, you’ll find a magical sivler one at level 10. But the trick is, this also applies to enemies. So at high enough level, every two bit bandit you encounter will be decked in full daedric armor and such silliness.
By comparison, Fallout 3 *still *has scaled NPCs - the higher your level, the more HP your basic raider will have, and the better his aim. But he’ll still carry a dinky 9mm, making him much easier to deal with when you’ve got a chaingun (and, on the opposite hand, even with fewer HP and shitty skills, a chaingun wielding Super Mutie is a BIG problem to a newbie character armed with 3 rounds of buckshot and a knuckleduster). But pretty much every weapon cache, quest reward etc… is fixed as far as I know, so if you know what you’re doing, you can make the game a bit easier on yourself by going straight to the nice gun. For a while, at least, until it decays past usefulness or you run out of ammo.
