Strategy guide for 100% difficulty

[galraen]

Err, I'm sorry, but Dragon Age beats Oblivion three times over, for me.

Real story with tons of side quests and background lore, real party with party interaction and romances, much much better rulesystem with challenging fights - hooray !

Is the DA story line better than vanilla Oblivions? Without a doubt, but that's as far as I'd go. On side quests in fact Oblivion is far superior, the side quests in DA are crap frankly.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'rules system', if you mean the basic engine, yet again Oblivion is superior, in fact the DA engine is primitive by comparison.

The fights are about equally challenging in as much as most of them aren't challenging at all.

When you factor in third party mods, then it isn't even close, Oblivikon blows Da away, mainly because the engine lends itself to modding and isn't primitive.

DA is a one run through game, worth the one run through, but will stay on the shelf for ever now I've done it.

[Belthan]

I played NWN2 for a while & it was OK, but I ran into a bug that stalled the main quest line. A quick Google didn't turn up any solutions and my most recent save was far enough back that it just didn't seem worth continuing.

I also played Dragon Age for a while, but I got distracted by another game I had borrowed from a friend and never went back to finish it. Nothing wrong with it, I just didn't find it as personally compelling as TES (which has consumed an unspeakable quantity of my free time). Maybe I should give it another go.

Having said that, I've never played Oblivion with the difficulty slider set more than about 75% of the way up, and based on some of the previous comments, I probably never will. The plethora of mods for Oblivion have stretched the replay value near infinity, without going back to fight old enemies on a tougher difficulty setting.

[Tenser]

Boredom can be a problem with Oblivion, but nothing like the boredom with other games like Dragon Age or NWN2.

I disagree.

Yes I only finished DA and NWN2 once.

But I at least played them once. I never managed that for Morrowind at all. Full 4 years after I got it, I managed to finish Oblivion, and that only because I simply cheatet me to maxlevel, then used some mod gear to play, so I didnt had to waste my time with stuff like ressource collection or levelup or anything, but could concentrate on the main quest.

And then I was completely surprised about how super short the main quest is, after all.

[galraen]

I disagree.

Yes I only finished DA and NWN2 once.

But I at least played them once. I never managed that for Morrowind at all. Full 4 years after I got it, I managed to finish Oblivion, and that only because I simply cheatet me to maxlevel, then used some mod gear to play, so I didnt had to waste my time with stuff like ressource collection or levelup or anything, but could concentrate on the main quest.

And then I was completely surprised about how super short the main quest is, after all.

Obviously CRPG games aren't your cup of tea, they aren't everybody's.

[Tenser]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'rules system', if you mean the basic engine, yet again Oblivion is superior, in fact the DA engine is primitive by comparison.

The rulesystem describes how the game works.

Oblivion:
- primitive skill levelup, game monitors player, no control of levelup process
- no balance at all anywhere in this thing
- very simple collection of unbalanced magic effects. No difference between different elemental damage types except for resistances of opponents.
- Everyone ends up being a Fighter/Thief/Mage at 100 in all attributes and skills unless they level wrong (uniformity)
- In the end only minor differences between players (birthsign and race)

Dragon Age:
- experience levelup (not per se superior, but far better than what Oblivion has)
- Full control of the player how he wants to develop the character
- having a certain level compiles to having a certain power (balance isnt a completely alien concept)
- at least mages actually get something like a real choice on how to develop
- individual spells with individual advantages and disadvantages (ice slows or freezes opponents, fire burns, lightning drains stamina / mana etc)
- Characters actually differ in attributes (not much but at least somewhat)

DA is more complex, but not substantly better than, say, Knights of the Old Republic, or Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines.

But its far superior to the completely unbalanced system used in Oblivion.

[Tenser]

Obviously CRPG games aren't your cup of tea, they aren't everybody's.

Ah, and catholicism is nothing for the pope.

[galraen]

I actually wrote a detailed point by point responce, but we're getting too far away from the thread's topic. I'll just say I really think you should actually try playing Oblivion, which it is obvious you haven't actually done. The main problem with Oblivion is that it is over balanced, with everything balanced around whatever level you are.

I agree with some of the faults you raise about Oblivion, but I just find DA to be a very inferior, antiquated game. Not just inferior to Oblivion (which isn't a good game by any stretch without mods), but to games like Wizardry 8 which is ten years older, but actually is more advanced in many ways than DA!

[Master David]

I disagree.

Yes I only finished DA and NWN2 once.

But I at least played them once. I never managed that for Morrowind at all. Full 4 years after I got it, I managed to finish Oblivion, and that only because I simply cheatet me to maxlevel, then used some mod gear to play, so I didnt had to waste my time with stuff like ressource collection or levelup or anything, but could concentrate on the main quest.

And then I was completely surprised about how super short the main quest is, after all.

If you are trying to look like an expert, at least make up lies or something
Don't just say "I cheated, the game is beatable in 5mins"
Lol

The rulesystem describes how the game works.

Oblivion:
- primitive skill levelup, game monitors player, no control of levelup process
- no balance at all anywhere in this thing

Dragon Age:
- experience levelup (not per se superior, but far better than what Oblivion has)
- Full control of the player how he wants to develop the character

But its far superior to the completely unbalanced system used in Oblivion.

You're swapping things up

Imo Oblivion is the lengthiest RPG, and it has so much freedom too.
The level up system is new & unique, and you have far more control over it than the one in DA (when you got the hang of it).

If you just cheat the hell out of the game, and you feel the game is short, whose fault is that?

And don't mislead people by making false argument.


All in all, I agree with galraen.

[Fljotsdale]

I disagree.

Yes I only finished DA and NWN2 once.

But I at least played them once. I never managed that for Morrowind at all. Full 4 years after I got it, I managed to finish Oblivion, and that only because I simply cheatet me to maxlevel, then used some mod gear to play, so I didnt had to waste my time with stuff like ressource collection or levelup or anything, but could concentrate on the main quest.

And then I was completely surprised about how super short the main quest is, after all.

No wonder you didn't enjoy the game! :laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh: You are unlikely to get much pleasure from gaming if you cheat. The MAJOR pleasure in game like Daggerfall, Arena, Morrowind and Oblivion, is building your character from scratch through the game and gradually getting better and better. If that's not what you enjoy, don't bother with 'em. Just get something listed as max mayhem and get rollin'!