It dawned on me that it would be helpful to have some kind of guide for starting out in TIE for adventuring types as far as what types of dungeons to start out in or some starter locations, etc., especially for a mage. I love a good challenge, but it becomes immersion breaking when I prepare, preapare, prepare, go into random cave, get a$$ kicked, restart, try again, eventually move on to another cave, etc.
I have noticed that Command and Pacification spells that are supposed to work on up to level 13 are not working on the bandits and marauders, etc. that I'm finding in these caves and I am thinking that I'm waaay off the mark. If I can avoid being knocked out by the fatigue drain stuff, then I am getting one-hit armor and weapon disintegration effects! I mean, one hit and all my stuff is useless - since I play a mage, this is usually just some boots, a weapon and sometimes a shield (lately I've been using a physical shield as well to survive the hard hitting guys).
I had a pretty epic battle yesterday that I survived (by the skin of my teeth) involving about 5 bandit NPCs, but my companion died, so I still had to reload.
Not to spoil the fun, but this was near Leyawiin - the last part of the Mage Guild Recommendation quest that I have to complete in order to have all my recommendations. Nothing else in this quest series was anywhere near this tough, and I almost found it out of place. Now I'm 7th level, but still having to wait to complete the Mages guild starting questline... so I'm wondering; where are the starter dungeons anyway? are they near IC? Should I try some Aylied ruins, forts, etc.? The caves seem overpowered compared to what I was expecting.
I have an Alternate start mod, so I didn't start in the tutorial dungeon, and I haven't seen any of the in-game books? Are they just strategy guides on playstyle, or do they give any guide on starting areas to adventure at low levels? Obviously, I am not going around picking pockets to make money.
I even tried outfitting my companion with knockout gas arrows and she wont use them for some reason. I guess I could try it, but it doesn't feel right as a mage to have to shoot a bow... :shrug:
soon my mod will come out (i expect within 1-2 weeks) that would "help" a mage in TIE. if you don't mind i put my readme here...i'd like to hear (read) youir opinion and suggestions. the mod idea is inspired by TIE since i'm also a huge TIE fan so this is why i dare to spoil this topic
. and it may solve the "spells without visual and sound effect" problem too (i like this eye candy too). my mod may "help" in one way but make the gameplay harder in another way.
Making it clear right now: my main principle is NOT to make cheat spells, i even try to make the game harder. I think Oblivion NEEDS to be harder, the vanilla system is for that lazy casual gamers who play with a controller in their hands…Ok, i know there are several magic system mod (Mighty Magic, Supreme Magicka, etc.) and i raise my hat, but honestly i never ever was really impressed by them. I think they are heavy, change too much, not always lore friendly, full of scripts, overpowered, making your character a half god. And i'm a mod purist, I like simple mods (I prefer only esps) and I don't like to use too much and too heavy mods, only if it's absolutely necessary (for my taste). And i don't want to create new (not lore friendly) "uber-killer-cheater-half god" spells...so:
Spell and Enchantment Tweaks...for Un-leveled Oblivion
Do you play with overhauls that un-level creatures and NPCs, enemies and friendlies like TIE, CUO or RIBO? If yes, you know you can bump into any level opponent with these overhauls.
It’s hard to be a spellcaster in a world like this…and the player should always know what level enemy he/she is up against. There is a bunch of spells that depends on the level of the opponent. Namely: Demoralize, Turn Undead, Calm, Command, Frenzy. So, partly inspired by TIE, i’ve been creating a spell and enchantment tweak or "overhaul" to make spells and enchanment useful for mages or any character in a non-leveled world where you can face random level opponents.
So i removed the magnitude of those spells that depend on the level of the enemy and they only have duration. This means they always work no matter the what level enemy you face but due to your skill level they last different length of time. If spell effectiveness drops below 100% only the duration will decrease. As your skills grow you can access longer duration spells.
Don't expect 60 sec Demoralize spells...at novice level you can get a spell with 2-4 sec. With low skills these spells will provide only breathing space and and you gain only a short time for escape or plan your next move. If you want longer duration spells you need to be a skilled mage with high magicka and you may benefit from these spells more then just running away. But even the highest level spells won't last more than 30 sec. But you know...it always will work. Note that touch spells last longer than targeted spells.
At least this is my goal. These changes are possible because of a great new Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) based tool: Oblivion Magic Extender (OBME). So my mod needs OBSE and OBME.
No more easy 100% chameleon or custom drain health with 500 magnitude for 1 sec, you know…so this is the second part of my mod. There are spells easy to exploit. So Chameleon, Invisibility, Paralyze, Drain Health, Charm, Elemental Shields are harder to cast, they need more magicka, provide lower magnitude. Drain Health is replaced by ?kill” spells (inspired by OOO), it takes away a certain amount of health for 1 second and you can not make custom spell. You can use these to end a fight in short time…or, if the enemy’s health points are under the threshold of your kill spell, he/she/it will die instantly. You have to be skilled in Destruction to get higher magnitude kill spells.
100% Chameleon…destroys the gameplay (i know the player can choose not to use it but…you know how it is…). Charm: it’s easy to create a 100 magnitude spell for 1 sec duration at a low magicka cost – you can easily skip persuasion and can steal anything from a charmed NPC without consequences (not mentioned the fact that one of the greater powers of the Imperial race or vampires is worth nothing...). Elemental Shieds make plain Shields useless so now they need more magicka and provide smaller magnitude and duration compared to plain Shield.
I try to make useful a couple of before useless spells and tweak some other spell for the sake of reason. Burden will make your target encumber much more. Bounding armor and weapon lasts longer (uniformly 45 sec). I left alone creature summons as they won’t be alive for long anyway…Absorb spells go in Mysticism school. I put Turn Undead in there too. I know it was Conjuration spell even in Morrowind but i've never understood why…demoralizing undead creatures is a mystical thing for me, nothing to do with bounding or conjuring anything (even if it’s not lore friendly, sorry) and i think Mysticism school needs an improvement anyway. Shields (both plain and elemental) lasts longer so you don’t have to cast it and cast it and cast it and cast it…and than gain multiple skill-increasing after a small dungeon.
Other tweaks:
- 2x faster spell speed: you need more tactics. Before it was easy to dodge enemy spells, now you have to be faster. Of course your spells will be 2x faster.
- Acquiring water walking and water breathing spells basically needs to be journeyman level in Alteration. They are easy and great help to the player so why do i left them untouched? (Or you can get these in other ways, like making a Mages Guild Recommendation Quest or to be an Argonian.)
- Enchanting cost raised to 13 x of the original value, because in TIE or RIBO you hardly find any enchanted item, they are rare and not only another piece of junk to sell, so why should i let it easy to create enchanted weapons?
- All Restore Health and Fatigue spells are changed. Now you need time for the full effect, no more instant regeneration. Be more tactical during fights. Potions are changed too.
- Starting spells (Heal Minor Wounds and Flare) are made a bit more useful. They have duration but they heal/damage more than default.
- When choosing a magic school as a major skill you will get one apprentice level spell. I'm not able to make possible choosing the starting spells, sorry, so i set them, but if you are familiar with CS you may want change them (starting spells are apprentice level Shield, Summon Skeleton, Weakness to Fire, Calm, Detect Life, Fortify Speed). This will work only starting a new character!!!
- A fighter in full armor still have to bear the consequences... spell effectiveness will suffer much more by wearing armor and weapon. A mage should be mage, a warrior should be warrior.
- There is 2 magical stone changed too: Jone Stone (it gives Invisibility...duration is halved but still very long), Shadow Stone (it gives Chameleon...duration lowered but still very long).
Next bigger part of my mod is tweaking the enchanments, sigil stones and potion effects so they will correspond with the tweaked spells. Enchanted weapons, scrolls, apparel, potions and anything can be found will have the similar effect (magnitude, duration) of the default spells. That’s it.
I know there are greater powers, lesser powers, birthsigns, abilities, etc. could be changed like the above mentioned stock spells but i intentionally left some of them alone because i think these special ?knowledges” should be really special. Although some of them is changed, generally i lowered the duration of some effect.
Note that i didn’t want to uniform everything. Ther is some potion, sigil stone, enchanted apparel i won't change.
for example: i changed the elemental shield spells (generally lower magnitude, longer duration). when i checked e.g. frost shield apparels (rings, shields, etc.) i noticed that their magnitudes basically correspond the new values of the spells. since in TIE, RIBO or else similar overhauls these enchanted items are extremely rare (besides tough enemies maybe this is what i like the most in these overhauls, i hated when in OOO i found something valuable every corner of a dungeon) i think i can leave them alone, they probably won't unbalance the hardcoe gameplay (but if mod user players or i experience else i will tweak them too).
...or frost shield potions: i will let their values intact because in this way diversified tools will be at the players' disposal. in this case, potions will have generally stronger magnitude but shorter duration, compared with the modified stock spells.
so some potion, apparel, maybe some scroll values stay untouched, these things don't always have to be standard and have the same values as the spells. i think this diversity will give more tactics and variety to the gamplay.
Final thoughts:
Please tell me your opinion and suggestions. This mod is not a big thing, i only changed values in CS, so no scripts (i don’t know anything about them, although OBSE and OBME needed), no anything fancy in this, although it is a tedious work to edit and edit and edit...
Once i totally finished the basic parts of the mod (Oblivion and Shivering Isles - but i think it won't be a problem if you don't have SI) i immediatelly start expanding it to all other official DLC, mainly the Spell Tomes, but i will include other DLCs if necessary.
» Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:33 pm 
