The Gamer's Quarter

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

Triple post whut whut.

In the course of the main quest, you need to do a bit of elementary cryptography, which results in a surpsingly utilitarian message.

Of course, I manged to do it wrong and wound up with something else entirely. Which I will now share with you:

Greetings, reader. Enter every night, enter my palace endlessly roaring offering red-drink. Whomsoever answers your whisper hides enraptured, recorded, enslaved the oathbreakers. Woe, every reader that once understood CHIM. He endeth starlight. May I deathlessly deny all your suns under nothing.

dhex · Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:46 am Post subject:

that's awesome.

and yeah, i have no idea how a magic user gets through oblivion. stealth, i can see (i'm a pretty stealthy guy) at least in parts, but without strong combat skills you're pretty much fucked.

i also finally finished levelling up yesterday (i'd be playing and ignoring the leveling for a while) and whoo, does it make things easier. maybe i just haven't met the right mountain lion yet or whatever, but levels 12-22 were more or less horribly hard, but everything since then has been far easier.
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Tablesaw · . Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 303 Location: LACAUSA

dhex · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 10:48 am Post subject:

ok, so i'm just bout near the end of the main quest, i believe.

has anyone else finished the main quest? i'm going to put around a bit and maybe put on a few more levels before i get rawkin'.
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dhex · Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 9:25 am Post subject:

http://www.rpgcodex.com/content.php?id=129

while i don't necessarily disagree with a lot of these points, i do have to wonder (yet again) what was more "intelligent" about daggerfall or morrowind. (both being wildly different games)

is complexity really intelligence? is simplicity really stupid?

is being a casual game player really that bad?
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Lackey · . Joined: 11 Jul 2005 Posts: 1107 Location: Canada

I'm pretty much enjoying the main quest. I'm only level 4 though, and I think I'm quite far in it.

I would assume things don't just end after? They don't usually, in Elderscrolls games. Also, Jauffre seems to be trapped inside a wall, all I can see are his boots and his shadow.
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Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

dhex · Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 6:57 am Post subject:

so i finished it about 80 hours in.

still got some more stuff to do, though. finished mages guild, fighter's guild, dark brotherhood, arena and a few other things i prolly forgot.
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

dhex · Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 11:37 am Post subject:

fast travel helps a lot.

i mean, yeah, there's some IW'ing going on there, but it's so bug free compared to any earlier elder scrolls that i can live with that. things have been streamlined and simplified. but i daresay i liked it a lot more than morrowind in some ways.

out of the many fans screaming about how the xbox kids fucked everything up (which i admit to doing when i played invisible war, guilty guilty) i'm sure only a very small percentage were still actively playing daggerfall. that game is a great idea. a really great idea. it's an utter fucking mess, though.

this is far less of a mess. i also don't tend to spend that that long on a game if i can help it. i doubt i put more than 80 hours into morrowind, if only because i don't get all that into the living doll facets.

i'm fascinated by them, but i've got shit to do, ya know?

anyway, i think my article on oblivion, if i can produce one before the end of may, will be called something like "and we worship the glitch" talking about the glorious broken-ness of the TES series.
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Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

So I'm playing it just now. Poking around Imperial City and hearing all this talk about The Gray Fox, supposed leader of the Thieves Guild. Got arrested for trying to break into someone house, chose to serve my time, and the next day not a few minutes after I get out of jail some woman comes up and hands me a mysterious note from, none other, The Gray Fox. He tells me to meet him down by the Waterfront district if I'm interested in making a lot of money. Problem is, I can't find the Waterfront district for the life of me. Obviously it's by the water, but I poked around for a half hour before I decided to wander outside the city walls. Nobody was able to tell me where the Waterfront was either, not because they didn't know, but simply because asking them wasn't an option.

That was kind of annoying.

So I wander around outside the city walls for a few minutes, run across the Arcane University or somesuch and eventually stumble upon the Waterfront. I'm poking around looking for the place I'm supposed to meet Gray Fox mentioned in the note but don't find it. Instead I find the door that takes me back to a district within the city walls, only the weird thing is, is down in the Waterfront district this door leads nowhere. I walk through it and end up in this other district, right, but I can literally walk around the door in the Waterfront and see just a blank wall there next to a path that leads around the city itself. Strange...

There were also a couple boats docked at the Waterfront. One of them was a hotel/bar type place. The other I didn't get a chance to check out because the moment I stepped down onto the plank leading onto the deck I hear swords unsheathing. I turn around and see three scurvy, bandit looking types start attacking me. Guess it was their boat and they don't take kindly to strangers poking around on it. I run past them and try to fight them off for a bit till I start getting my butt kicked pretty bad. Then I start running from them. A nearby guard sees this and runs to my aid fighting off two of them while the third continues to chase me. I run until I reach the end of the stone platform I'm on then jump into the water and swim the shore, where I then jump up to the path and then run around to the door I just mentioned. Walk through it, bam, in another district supposedly a ways off in the main city proper. Guess I just teleported there or something. So now I've found a hotel and I'm staying there until tomorrow night, when I'll go back the waterfront and see if I can't meet up with Gray Fox like I was supposed too.

Lackey · . Joined: 11 Jul 2005 Posts: 1107 Location: Canada

Just a tip: the map markers are really helpful. The "garden" you're supposed to meet the Gray Fox in is really the back yard of a shack.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

I am so jealous ;_;

I really want to play Oblivion.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

The "bandits" are pirates and they're probably still there unless the guards killed them all. Which is a definite possibility.

Here's how to get to the "garden" that they describe, if you don't mind me spoilerizing it for you:

Go to where the pireate ship is on the Waterfront, turn left and go up the stairs and through the arch, when you come through to the other side, immediately turn left and hug the wall until your path is blocked by a low wall. You should be behind the last house on the row. This is where you're supposed to meet your contact for the Guild.

The Thieves Guild is the only group that I've finished so far, if you need further tips, feel free to post here and I'll spoilerize things.

Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

Cool, thanks. I'll think I'll do the Thieves Guild first as well. I dig me some thievin'. Really like that lock picking minigame too, even though my timing is off eight times out of ten. I'll get better at it I guess. I'll look out for the pirates as well, and pick them off with my bow and arrow from afar if I see them.

But how do you explain that teleporter gate thing that takes you to the waterfront and back to the city proper, but isn't connected to either area in any way? That's kind of been bugging me.

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

Ah yes. It's supposed to be a tunnel that takes you from the waterfront to the city. The "teleport" is that they don't let you actually walk through the tunnel.

To verify this, leave the cursor on the door going to the Temple from the Waterfront. It will say "Tunnel Wooden Door" or something like that.

Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

Ah, okay that makes more sense.

Also, I keep running out of lockpicks. How do I keep up a healthy supply? I'm getting pretty good at the whole lockpick minigame (opened a hard level lock on my first try tonight!) but I'd like to be able to have more than two or three shots at some of the higher level locks. I was able to buy them from that one guy you meet in the "garden" on the waterfront but now that I'm in the Thieves Guild he doesn't sell them anymore.

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

You have to get them from your fence. I believe that if you put "Independent Thievery" as your current quest, it should put a marker in Bruma, which is where your initial fence is. You can sell him stolen goods and buy lockpicks from him. I think you have to be indoors or be talking to him at night in order to do transactions.

If you're really tired of running out of lockpicks, I would consider doing the quest that you can get at the Daedric Shrine of Nocturne.

dhex · Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 7:59 am Post subject:

unless security is a major skill. that might seriously bork you.
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Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

dhex · Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 2:54 pm Post subject:

the item in question ups your security by 40 pts. if i remember correctly, you don't gain levels with that jump.
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Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

Well, you can continue to up your skill. I think there's a mod that you can apply so that it doesn't cap off your skill so that you can get it all the way up to 140.

Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

So I'm in Bruma now looking for the fence so I can unload some of these stolen goods.

Shit.

I'm in love.

I decided to hoof it and see the country side. I was impressed. Impressed with everything mostly. The hills and mountains, the two caves I ran across that I'm going to go explore after I find my fence, the wolves and deer I've hunted and killed for their pelts and venison, a mystical stone with weird looking runes inscribed on it that looks like it offers a quest of some sort by activating it. Everything about it is just awesome. A simple half hour jaunt through the wilderness has never produced such wonderful results of finding neat things to see and do like this before. I am in love with how much of this game there is to play here.

Magic!

I've started using magic now. Mostly just simple destruction and restoration spells like the ones you start out with, Heal and Flare. I love shooting fireballs at things and being able to heal myself after battle. So quick and easy it keeps me in the game that much more. I also love how quickly the magic and endurance meters recharge. Not as much waiting around for things to return to normal as in Morrowind. I leveled up in athletics yesterday so my endurance recharges like 25% faster now. Sweet. Oblivion is really good at keeping me moving and doing stuff in a way that Morrowind only hinted at, or buried under a lot of techical stuff.

I really like the fast travel too, but I'm kind of torn between how often to use it. On the one hand it's really convenient when I just want to do a quest and get on with it, on the other though you miss out on so much of the little stuff (caves, ruins, sites of interest, wildlife and enemies, etc.) when you just zip around like that.

I also really like how the music changes to the battle theme whenever an enemy or a wild animal spots you. Every time I hear that I instinctively pull out my sword and start looking around, preparing for the attack.

I like how you can pickpocket people. Coming into Bruma I came across a woman standing around outside the city gates. I crept up on her and noticed she had some gold and was holding a key for someone. Foolishly I took the gold instead of the key. Spoke with her, learned about some drama between a couple people that hinted at the possibility of hidden loot, then made my way into the city where rumor has it that this woman used to be an assassin! Damn! Intrigue! I really should have taken the key instead, I know it now. I'll get it from her one way or another, I'm sure. If I decide to follow up on that quest, that is.

A little nitpick: The snow. It looks nice and pretty, but it's not 3D. I mean, when you move around you can clearly see the snow "moving with you" is the best way I can put it. Like the snow isn't actually falling in a 3D space but is instead just projected over your in-game view via a 2D filter or something. Just a nitpick though, and if there's snow piled up on the ground outside when I exit my hotel room tomorrow I'm going to get a little giddy because there wasn't any snow on the ground when I went in for the night right before it started snowing.

I also think it's funny how sometimes when you talk to people they'll be all nice in answering your questions and giving you information and such, but if you don't have a very high personality rating and they don't think a whole lot of you they'll say something mean or snide when you end the conversation and walk off.

Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

Also the view of Imperial City from the mountainside between it and Bruma is just fucking gorgeous. I was a bit worried I wouldn't get these kinds of views because during my first trip through there it was a bit foggy, but it turns out that was just the weather as it's nice and clear now the next day.

seryogin · Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 8:38 am Post subject:

mr. mechanical akbar.
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Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

So, uh, I'm on this quest right? It totally wasn't the quest I set out to do, which was steal this bust from this city for the Thieves Guild, but I get there and go to this house that I think I'm supposed to go to. It's this famous painter guys house, right, and his wife tells me he's been missing for days or something and would I help her out a bit. So I say sure and she gives me access to his private painting room. I go in, see some stuff, and notice this painting he's been working on. Well, apparently the painting has magical properties because next thing I know, I'm inside the friggin' thing (which looks really cool I might add, the environments being made to look like they're painted and such. Reminds me of that Robin Williams movie, What Dreams May Come) and the painter guy I'm looking for is there and talking about trolls or something that someone has painted in there with him. Some talk of magical paint brushes ensues, and how the thief who stole the brush and painted the trolls in the painting is dead now by his own creations and I need to mop things up so we can all go back home.

So there's three trolls and the guy gives me turpintine to kill them with. Thing is, he gives me six bottles and it takes like three for me to kill one troll. So I can only kill two of them easily and the third always gets me. Also, it appears turpintine is the only stuff that really harms them, or at least harms them enough to where I can kill them before their health regenerates. So, I kind of don't know what to do. I can't leave the painting until I kill the trolls and I don't think I have another save where I'm outside the painting.

Help?

dhex · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 5:18 pm Post subject:

short version: yer fucked and my heart bleeds for you.

long version: aren't you a theif? iirc i ended up sneaking up on them. and since this is tes xboxified, you can always lead them back to the painter guy and let him fight the trolls while you sneak around and get yerself some nifty backstabbing in.

i got my fucking ass kicked the first time i went in there, though, so...always make new saves? i finished my 80 hours with somehting like 460 save files.
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Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

Hrm. I'll try the sneaking thing. Forgot about them thar stealth kills! Though every time I lead them to the guy he just gets knocked out (at least they don't kill him).

And if all else fails... Well, it's not like I was planning on making this my permanent character or anything. I was really just using this one as a test run of sorts to check things out for a few hours, then I got kind of sucked into questing with him. You know how it goes, I'm sure.

Joe · . Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 179

so guys, this thread appears long dead and devoid of shivering isles talk, so i'm going to revive it!

i started playing shivering isles on the xbox 360 the other day because damn if this game doesn't play miles better on a good gamepad and a giant widescreen television. i'm one of those people who was absolutely bored to death with oblivion and it's bland, tolkein-clone fantasy schlock aesthetic, and i must admit, shivering isles is fucking gorgeous. it's like some long lost art director who masterminded morrowind's wonderful design took a breather for oblivion proper, but decided to show up for the expansion. the damn thing opens with a dark, dingy room melting away before your eyes in a gigantic swarm of butterflies, revealing an alien, pastel world ahead of you that's absolutely full of complete lunatics.

in the first town alone one encounters a narcoleptic shopkeeper, a nord who is obsessed with bones and the nice sounds they make when you take them out of someone, a germophobic dark elf, and a woman who is in love with sheogorath, the god of madness and the ruler of the shivering isles, who birthed a gigantic resident evil-style demon for the sake of keeping people out of sheogorath's turf. later, you encounter a cult of heretics that is angry at the populace of the shivering isles for blindly following sheogorath as a god, and instead wants them to, well, blindly follow and conform to the idea of sheogorath not being a god.

it's just this amazing spike of creativity and genuinely interesting locales that has inspired me to play this game again. i'm still in mania, the "nice" side of the isles (dementia being the darker manifestation of madness) walking the long road to new sheoth, to meet the main dude himself, mr. gorath.

i highly recommend anyone who had a passing interest in the game check it out. i'm a bit late checking this out, but it's pretty much knocked me off my feet. i can't wait to see new sheoth!
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Crazy Bacon Lips · . Joined: 03 Apr 2007 Posts: 88 Location: Ol' Virginny

If i had four hundred dollars you would have sold me on a 360 right there.

Intentionally Wrong · Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 10:50 am Post subject:

I'm too low level to enter the portal. There's no frowny emoticon big enough, etc.

Joe · . Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 179

you can enter at level 1. sheogorath is messing with you. just hang out in front of the portal a bit and wait for him to start talking about how nice it is inside.
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Intentionally Wrong · Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 11:12 am Post subject: