The Prima guide is at home, but if I recall, it said there are certain locations which allow a certain amount of time, during certain hours, before you’re caught as a trespasser; as opposed to locations which are off-limits all the time.
If you’re sneaking and still being caught, that might be it. I’ll verify that in the guide later.
I can’t find where it tells the game time and week day. Certain NPCs are supposed to do certain things on certain days. Anyone else know where it is?
Map screen has the date and time.
Re: video card. The extra memory from 256 to 512, from what I’ve read, is a non-factor at this time.
looks at the game specs
sighs at nVidia GForce FX 5200
Like many others, time for a video card upgrade. While I expect my tax return soon, I’m not about to drop a ton of $$$ on the card.
This means I push off my planned upgrade of my sound card, ah well.
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I still don’t see the day of the week, unless it’s renamed.
For example, I read that a certain shopkeeper leaves on Tues and Thur to meet a thief guild fence, and she can be followed. How would one know which game day it is?
This is probably a lot of it. I have a 6800 GT (256 MB) running on an Athlon 3800+ with 1 GB of RAM and it runs very smoothly on High graphic settings on my machine.
Go here for the days of the week in Tamriel. Other than Saturday (Loredas) they’re pretty similar.
And hit your “wait” key to see your current date and time.
It’s also on the top of your ‘Tab’ menu.
Thanks for the good info!
I’m likely to buy this system after I sleep on it (well, not on it):
AMD Athlon™ 64 4000+ with HTT
256MB ATI RADEON™ X1800 XL (I can get a second one later)
2GB Dual Channel Low-Latency DDR
I’m not convinced about dual-core yet, especially if Oblivion didn’t even program for it. My remaining concern is whether to go with dual 7900GTs SLI’d, when I’ve heard so many problems with Oblivion using the 7xxx series cards. It’s enough to make me want to switch to ATI.
Comments welcomed - feel free to save me from my folly (again) if need be.
I didn’t mean to piss on your cheerios about the 6800. It’s just that the extra memory may not see any use, whereas the extra pipelines/pixel output of the 6800 GT over the 6800 certainly will be used. I don’t know how different the hardware of the 6800 is - it may be unlockable if it’s only software crippled… you’d have to search about that.
Athena, I highly recommend turning it down to 800x600. You get less detail, but you don’t really notice that after 5 minutes… whereas the laggy fights you very much notice all the time. I’m happier with a very smooth 800x600 than a jerky at times 1024x768.
As the mother of a 13-year-old, I actually remember the cheerio-target days. And now that you mention it, I think it’s time to revisit that particular lesson, roflmao.
I appreciate the generous hand-holding and suggestions here very much. I’ve spent this entire day (and the last 2 weeks) researching forums and specs. There is a wall one reaches with AGP, and now it seems that 6800GT’s with 256Mb are rare and overpriced. That still leaves power supply and RAM upgrades needed, which adds up to kicking a dead horse in expensive boots, imho. I’m going to bite the bullet and buy a new system. A few more hours prompts me to go to bed with this dancing in my head (see what happens with no man dancing in my bed?):
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4400+ (or 4600+ if it’s worth it) with HT and Dual Core
512MB ATI RADEON™ X1900 XTX (but no Crossfire motherboard - dual would be overkill, imo)
2GB Dual Channel Low-Latency DDR PC-3200 at 400MHz - 2 x 1024MB
I’m going to approach playing this game like buying a house, since I’m going to be living in it for a long time, I hope. It’s also my insurance against Alzheimer’s.
I wasn’t mistaken; the Prima guide does in fact say this.
Look for the 6800 GS. It’s a somewhat different architecutre but has a very similar performance to the 6800 GT. They have AGP versions.
brightpenny, that system is a monster. I would advise going one or two steps behind the current cutting-edge for each component, as the price/performance tradeoff for that last step is painful.
I’m running an Athlon XP 3500+, 1GB DDR RAM, 7800 GT, and getting decent framerates at 1280x1024. With grass turned off, I get pretty consistent 45 fps outdoors. So I think you’ll get a huge difference between what you have now and your new system, even if you drop down a couple of steps. And the money you save will be substantial. For example, going with the 4400 instead of the 4600 will save you $80.
Of course, if you have the cash to spend, then go for it. I’ll envy your new rig either way. 
I’ve had no issues thus far with my Nvidia card, by the way. Most of the issues I have seen reported on the forums have been around the lesser cards in the Nvidia spectrum.
Here’s the setup I ordered:
CPU: AMD Athlon64 4400+ Dual Core
XP does use dual core. I’m not sure how well or how much, but it uses it, and Vista (the next version of Windows) will also use it. I want this computer to last a while, and the CPU/motherboard is the biggest pain in the @#$#@ to upgrade, so I maxed this part out.
Memory: C3200DDR 2048MB (2PCS 1024)
The more memory the better. The important part here is that it comes in two 1Meg sticks, not 4 512 or something stupid. That means that when Vista comes out, I can just pop 2 more sticks in to get 4 gig.
Video: nVidia GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB
Like Brightpenny, I debated over 2 SLI video cards versus 1. I ended up with 1 high end one, because most games don’t use the second one (yet). I did make sure the motherboard supported adding another one when/if I want to.
Hard drive: WD1500ADFD Raptor 150GB 10000RPM 16MB
From what I gather, a big part of game speed is hard drive speed. I’ve never had a fast drive, and decided to go for it and get a 10K rpm drive. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Sound: Creative Labs X-Fi Fatal1ity
I’m a bit “meh” about sound, so I don’t care if it’s maxed. I also just want it to play games - I’m not going to be doing any sound recording or sampling. That said, I wanted decent game sound, so I went with a mid-level card made for gaming.
I ordered it from Falcon, which so far I’m incredibly happy with. Pre-sale, I called them a few times to ask questions. Phone was answered after 3 rings, by a guy who answered my questions, asked if there was anything else he could do for me, and hung up. Whole thing took <30 seconds, no upsales, no waiting on hold, no “Can I get your zip code?” Guy I talked to was knowledgable and spoke without an accent.
After I ordered (using their web page) a real guy sent me email to verify everything and answer questions. By “real guy” I mean I have the guy’s name and a real email address. When I asked where I could get order status on the web site, he replied:
So far, I’m in love with Falcon… we’ll see if they come through on the machine as well.
Why in the world would I do that when I can spend enough money to buy a small country and upgrade 
(seriously, it was time for me to upgrade: work-wise, my existing machine has become a dog. It doesn’t hurt that Obvlivion needs a better system, either!)
I, too, turned off grass and noticed an appreciable increase in framerates. Plus, I stopped losing my loot. Yesterday I fought a bandit who was using a dagger and when he died, the dagger flew out of his hand and went rolling down the hill. If I’d had grass on, I never would’ve found it (though it turned out to be junk).
BTW, added a few more mods to my game: darker dungeons (it’s creepy to use torches knowing your enemy can see you before you can see them, and needing the torch to even see what’s going on around you makes it more realistic; plus I have a reason to get nighteye), improved arcane and arrow velocity (which works for both you and the enemy), slower leveling, and slower summoning (takes 3 times as long). I’m still looking for the perfect loot leveling mod, which will decrease the chances of finding high-end loot at higher levels. I have a bit of time, fortunately, since I’m only level 2.
Athena, your system sounds wonderful, and it’s one I configured many times in the recent weeks (Falcon, wow). I encountered a number of people posting about framerate problems using the 7900 series on Oblivion though, so be prepared in case you need to tweak the .ini a bit until more patches come along. Be sure to use the Beta Forceware 84.25 drivers in any case. It doesn’t seem fair for such a great rig, but maybe you’ll sail along fine with no problems.
I’m still waffling on the video card myself. Getting a machine with ATI Crossfire enabled is way more expensive, but my motherboard is still SLI, so if dual cards become needed in the future, then I can just remove the ATI card and use Nvidias.
Yeah, I’ve read the same thing on the 7900. I’m just betting on people either not diagnosing the problem correctly or if there are truly bugs, them being fixed by the time I get the machine (it’s at least a few weeks for them to build it.)