I am telling you right now everything I ask and say will be completely noob-related so if you tend to get pissed off by questions that are asked by noobs, leave this topic immediately.

That being said, I am looking for some real help.
I had played TES: Morrowind for Xbox for some time, developing my characters and really enjoyed the game and loved it. I stopped playing for a couple years and just yesterday bought Oblivion. It was not too hard to get back into the gameplay and already I have been addicted. My questions are as follows:

-I am on my first character and have put in roughly about 10 hours of playing time, yet I am still a level one. I have completed some of the main quest (closed the Oblivion gate, etc), joined the Thieves guild, and have completed a good amount of Shivering Isles. I am still only a Level 1 however. Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong? Did I just pick a crappy set of major skills for the way I play the game?

-My second question is, is it bad that I already started Shivering Isles before finishing the main quest? I know it's really up to the player to decide how to play the game but would I get more out of the game if I did as much as I could before entering SI or does it just not matter?

Thank you for your help,

-Frusterated Oblivion Player

1) What major skills did you pick?

2) It really doesn't matter as far as I know.

OK, I don't mind noobs, but I will need to post in smaller amounts, so bear with me and keep refreshing your page!

First of all, 10 hours? You should be level 4/5 or more.

check out your major skills, and make sure you are using them.
If you need help working out all the skills, go to http://uesp.net

A quick few though;

Blade -- use swords/daggers to kill things.
Block -- Use R-mouse to block with weapon, or shield (shield preferable)
Sneak -- "Sneak" around using l-ctrl. It only levels up if you sneak when people/monsters are around.
Security -- Picking locks, picking pockets.

Make sure you are using the major skills.

SI is very separate from Cyrodiil's main quest. In fact, a lot of quests are. There's a tiny overlap here and there, but you don't have to worry about anything.

As for that first question; skillups are kind of slower. However, what weapon skill did you choose as a major? If you picked Blade but you're swinging an axe everywhere, you're not going to level up like that. Same if you chose Light Armor, but are hulking heavy armor everywhere.

Leveling works similarly to Morrowind in that regard. If you want to level up, use skills you chose as Majors.

You don't really need to complete the Main Quest first, before SI, but SI is quite tough on Medium Difficulty, (If that's what you are on, its default).

You are best however, to level up to about 6 first though. So make sure you have levelling downpacked first. Travel around the main game world before going to SI.

Anything else?

Okay, biggest difference between Morrowind vs. Oblivion is sleeping as opposed to waiting! I feel really dumb, I slept and advanced to Level 4 after. That being said, here are my stats:

Race: Dark Elf
~
Birthsign: The Shadow
~
Major Skills: Athletics, Blade, Block, Destruction, Marksman, Sneak, Speechcraft
~
Items/Weapons/Armor: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Shivering:Dawnfang_and_Duskfang, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Shivering:Ruin%27s_Edge, and Blades Armor

I feel a little better now knowing that I was actually leveling the whole time, just not realizing it. Now the question about SI vs. the main quest wasn't more of a practical one as much of an opinionated one. Do YOU think it is better to play through SI first then do the main quest or the quests of a guild or whatever, or is it better to do as much as possible in the main/other quests then do SI last?
Thanks for all the replies!

There is no way to play wring everyone plays right maybe it's that your skills are hard to raise or you don't use them much

Howdy, and welcome (back)! :wave:

Have you read this yet? http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Oblivion_for_Morrowind_players. It's been ages since I've played MW, but I was going to ask if you'd slept yet, or just been waiting, because a difference in leveling up seemed familiar. Glad you got it sorted!

Another big difference between the two is the way the world levels with you. In Morrowind, it was better to do the MQ, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon after certain levels because if you did them sooner, you'd die horribly. In Oblivion, you can do any of the quests and factions whenever you want, and generally the enemies will always be around the same level as you. Rewards will usually be leveled to you as well, so that's the main reason why a lot of people wait until level 20 or above before doing certain quests, so they can get the best possible rewards.

Very basically, the usual route is factions >MQ >Knights of the Nine >Shivering Isles. That lets you do some training before tackling the bigger questlines. If you're roleplaying though, the order depends a lot more on who the character is, and if they'll even do certain quests (my first character was an Orc who'd started in Morrowind, and didn't like the Empire very much, so he pretty much told the Blades where to put their katanas :laugh:). You can also wait until around level 30 and do SI first, just to get some really good gear before doing the MQ -- however, you can also do KotN first (and much sooner), since that gear will level up with you (it's the only gear in the game that will).

Personally, I suggest that you just do whatever, whenever, and experience the basics of the game with this character. Find one of the guildhalls for the Mages Guild and join them, so you can get your recommendations and gain access to the Arcane Uni. Don't have to do the rest of the questline yet if you don't want to, the main reason you want in there is so you can make your own custom spells and enchantments. Custom spells are usually much more effective than those you can buy, and you'll have the benefit of crafting something that suits your playstyle. Later on, you might want to make new characters who only do certain parts of the game. Or go visa-versa, and only do some parts with this character, then make other characters who'll experience other parts.

Hope that answers some questions, and don't be afraid to ask more, we're a friendly bunch

I've occasionally created characters that level very slowly. What you've done by the sound of it is choose as Major Skills things that your character doesn't use very often. That will cause you to level slowly but you should get quite a lot of multipliers to your Attributes whenever you do.

Personally I often do this deliberately to force my Nord character to use more magic skills than she otherwise would.

As far as playing Shivering Isles first, like Morrowind there is no right order to the quests, and nothing should break your game or screw up a quest - other than killing the wrong person (and that happens very rarely as most quest-specific NPCs are marked as Essential (and unkillable) until you have at least started their quest.

Like Morrowind, most quests have no time limit on them, so you can always leave a Shivering Isles quest and come back to it later on if you prefer.

It's not at all uncommon to have a character play 10+ hours without levelling up. I have with several characters. One is 27.5 hours of gameplay, and has not levelled up at all; she is about halfway to level 2.

Much depends on how you play the game.

First, the pace of your play. Do you like to go into dungeons and hack, smash, and kill? Do you like to grind skills to level them up (especially with spells)? Do you fast-travel, or do you walk around manually, taking more time on journeys which are not likely to result in many encounters? A 'fast' playing style definitely leads to quicker levelling.

Second, your major skills have a huge bearing on how fast you level. Some, like Security, Heavy/Light Armor, Conjuration, Mysticism, Speechcraft and Alchemy can level very quickly indeed if you use them intensively. It is very easy to go from 5 to 50 in Alchemy in no time by acquiring lots of ingredients and mixing up potions.

It's not necessarily a good thing to level quickly. In order to achieve maximum efficieny, you need to level up a certain amount of minor skills as well as majors, at each level. The majors alone will only get you +2 or at best +3 stat boosts per level; the minors will help you increase this to +5.

You can't level by waiting in Morrowind, either.

Hi,

Your build looks fine, apart from your rather useless Shadow birthsign. Thief, Mage or Warrior would have been a better pick. You should have fun with it now that you've learned the difference between sleeping and waiting. Oh, and try not to use Speechcraft much, or at all. Useless skill. Just bribe or work Illusion up enough to make a good Charm spell. (it's not a bad thing to have a few useless skills as majors in Oblvion)

Mara

Yes. The game is that easy. Coming from Morrowind, you might not be used to everything getting killed with a simple poke.

You need to sleep in an owned or rented bed, or bedroll when it is safe in a cave or wilderness, to level up.

You can sleep almost anywhere, though, so it isn't likely that you'd accidentally miss a level-up.

Well if the slider is all the way to the right, even a common rat can be a b****ch ^_^

Thief and warrior are pretty useless too.

IMO, only three birthsigns are worth using:

1) Atronach. Take this if you're not making a pure spellcaster. Even if you are you can still take it because the spell absorption is godly, but make sure you have magicka potions with you.
2) Mage. Take this if you're not a breton but plan on casting a lot of spells.
3) Apprentice. Take this if you're a breton spellcaster. 50 more magic resistance and the magicka weakness becomes irrelevant.

Did we play the same Morrowind? Morrowind's difficulty is a joke to any but the newest of players.

:huh:

Dunno about anyone else, but I played the version where a mudcrab was actually a threat at early levels, even after I'd been playing for several months.

Hey guys thanks for all the helpful replies.

I have found Oblivion to be a little easier than Morrowind to be honest. Everyone keeps talking about leveling up before doing SI but i'm already more than half way done with it and I did it all as a level 1. I don't know if the Oblivion Gate was supposed to be hard or not but I did that within the first 30 mins or less of playing the game. I'm going to have to agree with Voby on that one and my slider is on medium difficulty (default). I'm really enjoying the game so far though.

In response to AVanguard; it's like Lackadaisical said in Morrowind you can sleep anywhere as long as there are no enemies near by, you don't need a bed. That is why the whole time in Oblivion I though I was sleeping but as we've already established I was not.

Thanks again for all the replies

As alluded to previously, I would work on Illusion a lot. Shadow isn't a great sign, but that isn't all that important really. One good thing about it is that if you get access to spellmaking before your Illusion skill is at 50 you can still make a short duration Inviso spell for getting past a few tough enemies, or to steal stuff in broad daylight, pick locks, etc... You could also do that by visiting the standing stone that grants a once per day inviso spell, but you have to find it after dark.

The rate at which you progress and level up has no importance. If you find that you're progressing slower than you normally should, know that your character will most likely benefit from it… including you.

I like to believe that the game adjusts itself to match your style of play. If you're thirsty for some action and go all out, then the game will match your pacing with earlier, stronger foes.

You can start and end as many quests as you want in any order at any time. Starting one quest early might give you a relatively poor reward, but levelling up during that quest will open other opportunities for other, better rewards for other quests.

There's some really cool spells in the Shivering Isles that might make it easier to play through the original Campaign. I can't speak from experience but I'd try it.

If you're having fun, you're playing it right.