Hi

I have recently got back to playing Oblivion and have even managed to work out how to install FCOM and all the mods that go with it.

I am now back to actually playing the game again and have realized that I don't really know "how" I am supposed to be using all the spells, potions and magic when in combat.

One of the odd (unfortunate) features of Oblivion is that the game seems to be designed to let you PAUSE the game/action/combat to let you take your time to riffle trough your inventory to perhaps use all kinds of things to restore health, mana and/or stamina etc.

I understand that you can "hotkey" up to 8 weapons, armor, spells, or items to keyboard numbers 1-8 so that you can "quickly" make it "active" to use when next press the "C" cast key.

What I don't understand is exactly the expectation on how it is players are supposed to deal with all this in combat. Constantly pausing the game every few seconds during a combat engagement to change the active item or weapon is a real pain and distraction to the gameflow and enjoying the game. Resuming the combat from the paused state is just as frustrating because the player now needs to "get back in to the flow of th game" and remember what was actually happening at the time they originally pressed pause.

I am familiar with how a game like Warcraft integrates un-pausable action/combat with a user-friendly customizable hotkey GUI that allows players to much more easily pick from a range of spells/attacks in "the heat of battle" without requiring them to pause the action. Oblivion is nothing like this. The GUI in Oblivion is so limited that players can't even see what is mapped to what hotkey without pausing the game and checking. You even have to press two different buttons to actually cast/use whatever has been selected (first to pick the spell/item, second to actually cast/use it).

So I would like to hear from other players how they play. Is Oblivion gameplay meant to be liberally sprinkled with frequent PAUSES to give the player to reorganize their inventory/spells/weaponry? Why don't they just use an interface like Warcraft where you can basically see all your spells, weapons and items organised on the screen at once to be used by pressing just one button (rather than 2).

I have found that most of the spells/potions etc are just not worth the effort to use mid-way through combat because constantly pausing the game to map/arm it to use it even once, then rearm something else is such a distraction. There is so much detail and diversity in the spells/potions/items to use/cast during combat but it is so hard and tedious and disruptive to actually select and use it.

Unfortunately that's just another flaw in the game, but it can be overcome (mostly) with mods like super hotkeys that allows greater functions through the hotkeys like cycling through spells as you cast them, equipping entire outfits, and allowing 3x as many hotkeys. If you're playing it on a console you're out of luck though and just have to deal with it.

I'm struggling too with the stupid hotkeys. As a mage with ALL EIGHT (sorry, felt like yelling), hotkeys, its very frustrating remembering all the keys in combat.

If you have a gamer mouse, with programmable buttons it can help, but not much. I need to look for a mod to help me!

As a rule, I have found that the keys 1,2,3 are easy enough to flick between during combat, so have set my main Offensive to 1, main Heal to 2 and my third one changes regularly.

You may or may not be able to change the hotkeys in the options, not sure it helps though. I find I die from all the pauses, because I'm not aware of my surroundings. And on Dead is Dead, its very dangerous and frustrating.

I'ts even worse in your case because posioning is for one use only! You said you've used mods, so you must be PC. Try looking around for some mods, that's my only advice.

I was really hoping to be told I was doing it all wrong.

I really can't understand why the GUI and mechanics are so clumsy. Is it because they designed the game dumbed down for console gamers primarily?



Exactly. It really is ridiculous. A significant part of the problem is that selecting and casting/using stuff is a TWO button process. You can only cast/use spells/potions etc by firstly ARMING the spell/potion etc THEN having to press the cast button. That's TWICE as many buttons to press to do exactly the same kind of thing you might do in Warcraft, and you are also doing it essentially BLINDLY or from MEMORY. :blink:
A customizable Warcraft kind of GUI would be ideal for Oblivion.

Ah well....I am kind of surprised that this is the case then. I guess I will now look for some mods that might improve things.

I dealt with it by getting over it. Cyrodill has it's own ways. The hotkey mod sounds like a good solution for someone wanting to never pause during combat. Personally I don't think I've ever needed to activate more than 8 things in a single combat.

One thing that might help is to prepare ahead of time when you know a fight is coming. Use the left-to-right method to set the hotkeys up in a logical sequence. For instance;
key '1' is a shield spell for added protection (or night-eye/detect-life/ the first thing you want to do);
key '2' is a summon;
Key '3' is a poison;
etc.
When you enter combat it's as easy as one-c, two-c, three-c.

My mages use the sequence to fire off short duration, chained weakness spells that need to be cast in rapid succession,

Put a marker on your keyboard to separate a set of sequences. Use a small bit of masking tape with an arrow drawn on it. Or slip a small strip of light cardboard like from a business card between two of the number keys to separate sequence one from sequence two. Make sequence one alchemy, sequence two destruction, sequence 3 restoration etc. You can extend the masking tape idea to a little strip with each key named or use a printer to print out a strip with the names.

I don't mind pausing the game. With my characters life hanging in the balance I actually like to pause from time to time to get in touch with the character and what they would do instead of what I would do.

Yes-- that's exactly what it is.

Kinda like what I said, using 1-2-3, because anything past that is too far from WASD to safely get your fingers back.

Just checked, you can't change hotkey bindings through the game itself, but here in your "User\Documents\MyGames\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini" file, I found this:

Quick Menu=003BFFFFQuick1=0002FFFFQuick2=0003FFFFQuick3=0004FFFFQuick4=0005FFFFQuick5=0006FFFFQuick6=0007FFFFQuick7=0008FFFFQuick8=0009FFFF

But I can't make heads or tails of that -- I guess you need to know hexadecimal values for key presses?? :confused:.
Open the ini, ctrl-f and type "Controls" and scroll down till you find it.

Ahem.

Offensive much? Love how a good few people look down on console users......

I know its annoying for you but don't blame everything on console.

Well, you won't deny he has a point anyway...

PS3 sixaxis pad

how i assign inventory (i even use same method in fallout) feel free to put this on wiki if you like this method lol

d-pad left target ~note
d-pad right exclusive to healing only
d-pad up-right active buff spells like fortify speed , daylight or water breathing spectral form or water walk
d-pad down-right boost buffs like fortify magicka/health ,shield or custom bound armour
d-pad down de-buff like weakness dispell or the over powered spell like devour health
d-pad down-left touch ~note
d-pad up-left AOE ~note
d-pad up quest related ,greater/lesser , summon or custom type only

note~ 3 types range attack i use for mage
AOE - area of effect recommend long range only to avoid friendly fire
target - hurts single enemy at long and mid range
touch - close range
best to buy 3 of each range type spell for each element because if you forget which you assigned you still remember the range type assigned

simplicity im sure this also works well assigning to non magic character comparing weapons dagger ,short ,long and bow to there range and potion ,poisons,enchanted arrow etc replace the buff types

Ahem ,
That isn't meant to imply console gamers are "dumb" I'm sure so there's no need to jump down his throat over a valid point. The UI is clumsy on PC because it was designed around the simplified controls of a console controller or "dumbed down".

edit: Just had to add in that it doesn't in any way blame or "look down on console users" that is how Beth designed it how does that have anything to do with looking down on console gamers?

I don't dispute the points regarding the challenges the controls can cause. The default stuff works fine for my mystic archer though. She lives at long range in the shadows, so she usually has time to buff her nails between bow shots as her poison works. Only carrying one weapon helps because since it never leaves her hands, weapon hotkeys are unnecessary. We also have a nice little card we made leaning in front of the PC monitor that tells us what she has hotkeyed to what.

If things get hectic (rarely), she simply casts her normally keyed up custom spell, called: 'I'm going to disappear for a minute while this nice summons takes my place and distracts you so I can sort things out and rummage around in my pack and spellbook' .

Thanks for all the hints and workarounds. Seems I need to put in some more effort.

As was already said, I was not having a go at console gamers. I am ticked off that the PC version of the game has to suffer because the game was designed around console input devices, as opposed to a keyboard/mouse.

One other thing...Even if you are able to hotkey your spells/magic/items to the 1-8 keys, I have yet to find out a way to actually check and see what it is you have actually hotkeyed.

So my next question is HOW do you check what you have hotkeyed? Or for that matter, what is currently selected for the "cast" command?? Many of the icons look the same as each other especially the spells and there are no names (except if you go to your inventory page and try to match the icons labeled there.

Seriously, was it that hard for them to at least allow the user the option to show on the screen at all times what has been hotkeyed (like you can in Warcraft)?



I haven't played the game much (still in first few hours) but i don't understand how you can "live at long range" because the game seems to magically spawn enemies at close range, at ranges much shorter than what I can see distant objects anyways (that means that it doesn't' normally take them too long to run up to you and engage you in melee). Why is that anyway? Is there a setting I can change (mod) that makes me first see enemies at further range (is this a PC performance issue??) or is it based on my spotting ability or something?

One more question....there are some potions that are no good if you take them yourself (like damage health etc)...so how do you use them (gainst enemies)? Hold them down on the ground and force them to drink it? :shifty::P

If you hold a hotkey down it will tell you what you have binded to that hotkey.

The cast button by default is c you can change that in the options menu.

And yes they did get a bit lazy with the spell icons.

Hope that's helpful to you

Get some detect life and be careful entering new cells. I start most fights from 100 or more feet away, sometimes greater if the dungeon allows it.

potions that have negative efffects like damage health are applied to weapons as a poison by clicking on it in the inventory menu.

As with any game, it takes a while to get used to the mechanics when just starting to play it. Whatever my character happens to be, he/she can only use what is hot-keyed, during combat. You can change your hot-key set up at any time. Usually, before you enter a dungeon, you get an idea of what you are going to face, with what you have to deal with just outside said dungeon. I change my hot-key set up regularly.

I have a custom soul trap spell, with serious damages. At level 50, at 75% difficulty, most enemies will die from this spell with one cast. The soul trap doesn't work on NPCs (unless I am carrying a certain item, which I don't), but I don't change the hot-key set up of this spell, as the damages for that human is what I am after.

I pop a custom potion or two, before I enter the fray. The effects usually extend far beyond the battle at hand. I also apply poison before the battle, on whatever weapons I am using. It's not realistic to pause, apply potion then re-enter real time. In the end though, as long as you are having fun, is really what the game is about. I suggest playing longer, and soon it will feel like second nature.

I'm sure that you will find a custom key set up that works well for you.

I keep a sticky sheet with all my hotkeys pasted next to my keyboard, so I know what everything is. I typically keep the same keys for each character, 1 being a heal, 4 being a shield, 5 being a ranged destruction, 7 an open spell, and 8 racial/birthsign power. That said, I tend to keep it simple in combat. I only ever use potions of a few types, and only go to them in combat when things are going poorly. Otherwise I just rely on my main weapon/spell.

I've been playing the game since about end of May and at various points this summer have contemplated starting a thread exactly like this. If memory serves, Fallout3 uses a similar system (hotkeys) but has fewer possible hotkey slots? Yet, in that game it doesn't feel as 'awkward.' I think that is because there is so much neat "stuff" and neat effects in Oblivion as compared to say Fallout3. Sure, in FO3 you may have a sniper rifle, a machine gun, and a melee weapons (been forever since I played that game . . . which actually is now giving me ideas for a break from Oblivion :flamethrower: ) but the possible stuff you can tap into at any given level tends to be a lot less than in Oblivion.

Initially, I tried to figure out "the system" for my hotkeys something like: hand weapon always 1; ranged always 2; protect spell 3; charm spell 4, etc.

As I've played different characters, I've come up with quite a few variations on that theme, and like Big Daddy said, alter them in situation specific instances quite a bit.

For example, I have a pure Mage who only made it to about Level 2 before I got distracted by another character. He only used a dagger, so that was never hotkeyed. 1 was protection; 2 was ranged magic; 3 was self-healing, 4 conjuration, 5 forget, 6 open locks, 7 horse/light, 8 soul trap. I had a Paladin who really only used the hotkeys 1, 2, and 3 1shield, 2fireball, 3self-heal.

ADDIT: btw, I use the "DropLit Torches" mod, which I LOVE! it uses the 0 (zero) key for torch by default.

The more-or-less "default" template I've come up with is as follows and it is exemplified in my currently active character a level 13 "Fem Darque" (Breton custom-class Battlemage female)

(1) weapon, alternates between the melee and the bow depending on which ever one is set to be active, i..e., if I'm using the sword 1 will be set to the bow, or vice versa

(2) protect spells self-explanatory

(3) custom ranged destruction, current spell here is "Zap!" (100 burden for 3sec; 7Shock for 2sec; 7ptFire for 2sec; 7ptFrost for 2sec; Soul Trap for 3sec, requires Alteration 50 [trying to get Alteration to 100%] When I'm in cities (3) gets changed to a Charm spell.

(4) plain ranged destruction, currently best spell is Finger of the Mountain 20ptShock

(5) weak ranged destruction, Flare (with ~320 Magicka, I an generaly pop off one of (3), two or three of (4) and then keep hammering (5) until its dead. Most stuff dies from two shots of (3)

Depending on circumstances I might alternate out hotkeys (4 & 5) with self-healing and target-healing, but since Restoration is a Major I tend to avoid casting those wantonly so as to avoid levelling up too fast.

(6) Open spells,

(7) Horse Commands while outside (generally just Horse Call, but sometimes Horse Follow) or "Ring of Night-Eye while underground
(
8) Until I developed the "Zap!" spell I was using this for Soul Trap. Now that I have a sword with a soultrap enchantment too, I still have not chagned it but will likely rarely ever cast Soul Trap

Spells like Life Detection or Summoning, which this character rarely ever uses rarely ever get hotkeyed, though I may change them out right before an engagement.

I guess the main themes I've developed (with exceptions)
1 is for weapons
2 is for protection
3 is for offensive spells, though I've also used it for Convalesce a lot, particularly in "training" sessions with Goblins and such
4 varies
5 is for self-healing
6 is for Lock opening
7 is for horse else night-eye
8 is for soul trap, though now that that is effectively obsolete I don't know what it will become for

Addit: as far as potions, clothing and the like. The only apparel I've found it convenient to alternate out is the Ring of Night-Eye. Alternate weapons, I've found most of my characters really only alternate between two weapons at any given time: the best melee and the best ranged, thus I will set key 1 as only one of these. Granted, I will do "training" sessions where I want to get maximum number of hits with an iron dagger, but I change those out through the F2.

Which, reminds me of another point I've not explicitly made in response to your OP: I try to avoid using F2 during combat as MUCH as possible, for the very reasons you name = it svcks the fun out of the game. My goal has become to get through engagements without using it (wish you could get through merchanting without using it too!), but resort to using it for potions of healing, etc.

I have tried setting healing potions to hot key 7 or 8 but that is 'dangerous' = far too easy to accidentally consume a healing potion or restore potion. I've found for most of the types of characters I play potions are best left as F2. It is a bit frustrating, cause potions are cool, and I make a lot of them. Then they sit there in my inventory accumulating, and I eventually sell most of them.

Living at long range:
1. Options - Video - Actor Fade (set to maximum)
2. Detect life, and lots of it. Buffy runs with +120' inside a dungeon and +300' out in the wilderness. She uses equipped items for this.
3. Good sneak skill.
4. A slow, patient and methodical playstyle.
5. If engaged at close range, disappear (invisibility) and reapproach from the shadows.