I'm just not patient enough for RPGs

[erastes]

Cut for Oblivion wibble

I don’t have the attention span to sit and scroll through a bazillion aptitudes and weapons and spells just to decide which one to use in a battle.  Yes, I know the battle stops while I’m doing this, and this is another thing that bothers me.  It’s stressy to have to leisurely choose the right thing when I know that someone’s trying to kill me.  I’m used to pressing one button to arm myself and bam.

Plus – all this levelling up.  “don’t sleep in a bed without levelling up your skills you won’t get the chance again.” wtf?  This is actually moot as I haven’t found a bed yet, am wandering about Oblivion entirely lost, and getting killed by things including plants and the GROUND. Hey, learning curve, how about being a little kinder to newbies?

I suppose my problem is that i made the mistake of reading the Oblivion “how to” pages. and they scared me senseless. According to the person who wrote it, i’ve already made all the wrong choices for skills and birthsign –but then they prefer to play as a warrior and i’m aiming more as a sneak/assassin. As the game came with no booklet, i’m having to fumble around and work out the controls.  I like EASY. I like HUD. *sulks* At least sneak skill is easy to upgrade. You just sneak and it automatically goes up..

Here’s hoping I get Metal Gear and/or Assassins Creed today. I need stuff I understand.

I was a bit disappointed about the finale to True Blood. What did happen was predictable, and there was a load of stuff that I expected to happen and it didn’t. Eric playing yahtzee was rather… yawn… Sookie’s “power” whatever that is, flickering once and not kicking in.  I’m sure this is all to come, but I found it all a bit blah (for this show, for a finale).Each show delivers such a punch perhaps it was difficult for them to match, or top it.

 

Ignore the dragons—you don’t need to click.

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Comments

[leatherdykeuk.livejournal.com]

Horses for courses, perhaps. I loved Oblivion and loathed Assassin's Creed. I enjoyed True Blood - finally, an end to the tedious Mary Ann arc and - fingers crossed - Bill dead at last.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

oh i enjoyed TB - as you say, got rid of Mary Ann - at last. she really wasn't interesting enough to hold on to.

And I like Oblivion, I just don't get it. I've just gone through the Oblivion gate and I can't find anything and all the monsters KILL me!!! It's very frustrating and quite hard for someone on level one and day two!

[lexin.livejournal.com]

Easily found beds in Oblivion depends on where you are. If you're still in the Imperial City, if you have 10gp you can buy a bed for the night at any of the Inns, including the floating Inn by the Waterfront.

If you're in any of the other cities (though not Kvatch - don't go near that place until you're 5th level and are used to fighting) join either the Magician's Guild or the Fighters Guild and you get a free bed in the guildhall (and interesting adventures to do).

And look out for bandits on the road. And don't think that staying off the road will help, you'll just be attacked by animals instead - bandits are better as you can sell their armour for gold.

[lexin.livejournal.com]

Oh, no! You went to Kvatch! Still, at level 1 the opponents should be fairly limited.

ProTip: If it's really difficult and you just get killed all the time, find the difficulty level (it's under options somewhere) and turn the difficulty down until you get used to the gameplay mechanics.

(You can tell I've played this game for entirely too long, can't you?)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I can back track a bit and use one of my earlier saves - I sort of thought that as the quest was "Go and get martin" - that what was I was SUPPOSED to do. Stupid me.

I'll seek a very easy option!!! Thanks!

[hybridartifacts.livejournal.com]

I have enjoyed playing Oblivion except for the main quest, which I found was starting to get rather boring whenever an oblivion gate turns up (which was far too often). Thank goodness I have been playing it on a PC and can fairly easily apply mods to customise the damn thing.
Not that I have had much time to play lately - I haven't even reinstalled it post my computer crash earlier in the year.

Besides - I just miss the days when if you mentioned an rpg it would not mean a computer game...

[sinick.livejournal.com]

Oblivion is a fabulous, rich, deep, utterly addictive game. My personal all-time favourite.

But the inch-thick manual is a MUST. Seriously. No more getting lost, no more WTF.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

If I'd played RPGs before the day of PCs I'd probably be more used to them, I just don't get the whole "add this to your staff" or "repair your armour with a hammer" thing - it's all so FUSSY.

I think I'll trundle around and get some more experience before I risk going back into that gate, or I'll just throw the thing out of the window and be the only player only to ever have given up on level one. Oh the shame.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Good God. Exactly - that's exactly what I mean - ONE INCH THICK!!!!! ARGH! runs screaming!

[hybridartifacts.livejournal.com]

Actually, I find all too fussy in traditional 'pen and paper' rpgs as well. Immersion can be a very enjoyable aspect of any game, and sometimes things just seem to get in the way of that. There is a tendency for rpgs to get up caught up in their more simulationist roots in war gaming where someone really does care if that cannon can shoot 3cm more than the next one. I really don't go for that, Im largely just interested in the story or having a good time.

Oh-and those oblivion gates start spawning on their own and spitting out a rather repetitive set of monsters after a while and you have to keep going back through them to shut the darn things off. Which to my mind is a terrible piece of game design.

[sinick.livejournal.com]

Butbutbut! It's FUN! If you'd had the manual you'd've known NOT to tackle an Oblivion gate till you had the experience, and you'd've known how to get the experience, where to go to find Really Cool Loot, how to meet Interesting Monsters and all sorts of fascinating ways to kill 'em! :D

Oh, as well as the manual there's a wiki that's an EXCELLENT resource, not just for Oblivion but for the earlier Elder Scrolls games as well.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

BUT WHY DIDN'T THE BLOODY PRIEST TELL ME THAT????

It's stupid. The quest says: "go and see jaffree" so I do that. he says "go and get Martin"

Surely you should trust the game to guide you to take it at a pace that is a gentle curve?? I mean - if you started to play a metal gear game, you aren't thrown immediately into a firefight with a load of trained commandoes, or asked to use weapons you haven't picked up - you have to learn how stuff works! Jaffree should have said "You need to rescue Martin, but you'll need to have reached level...xxxx before you try it."

NOT

"Hurry up and find him, you lazy slacker"

argh!

[sinick.livejournal.com]

Jauffre's a norty boi. He didn't RTFM.

*ducks and runs* :}

[lexin.livejournal.com]

It is 'go get Martin' but given what the Oblivion Gates are like, and the section after that's even harder than the gate itself *and* once you've got Martin back to Jauffre more gates appear...I'd hold off that for a bit and noodle around doing a few guild quests first. The main quest will wait for you, despite Jaufre sounding like it's got to be done yesterday.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*kicks him*

Thanks!