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Aye, you can leave huge piles of stuff laying around in Oblivion and nobody ever steals it, which is why I was surprised at the apple-thief.

Seds - I wouldn't worry too much about power levelling because, if you're not careful, you'll find yourself at an abnormally high level really early in the game and you're gonna get increasingly annoyed by high-level enemy encounters. Best just to play through your first few games normally. The only attribute I 'force' these days is sneak - just go to the Grey Mare in Chorrol, climb the stairs, face 180 and jump to the little platform. You can sneak there mostly undetected to your heart's content.

Well, I got Civ Revolutions and Last Remnant and don't like either of them. Never been a fan of all the micromanaging in RTS games and Civ Revolutions, even though it's more basic than a PC offering, does it to an annoying degree. The frame rate in The Last Remnant is so bad that I switched the game off during the very first battle. I'm glad they were cheap but that also means I'm gonna get buttons for them when I go to trade.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

It's not that the victim steals the apple. It's just that it's the only food in his house. So when he's home and the game "tells" him to eat, he seeks out anything that he understands as food, and eats it. Death!

I'm pretty sure you can also just sneak it onto their person, and it has the same effect. He is compelled to eat his edible inventory.

I think you can continue to buy poison apples from somebody in the Dark Brotherhood lair in Cheydinhal.

Hmmm, maybe I didn't explain myself very well. The reason I am trying to level those main skills up is that they don't seem to be leveling fast enough. I am still not even a Journeyman in anything, because my character levels after 10 points total have gone into my set of Major skills, but it almost seems like it is +2 across the board, and I only get to level 3 attributes (for a net gain of 6 or 7 points, as opposed to 15 total points per level if I had +5 available in some attributes).

So, I feel like my level-ups are inefficient, and that the creatures that also level are leveling more efficiently, so they are getting tougher to deal with, while I get the minimum points per attribute in each level.

It is the opposite of power-leveling, to me. The method I first talked about in my last post is something I JUST started using last night in order to counter the inefficient leveling I have been experiencing; I haven't been playing that way all along.

Needless to say, I don't want to just stand around spamming spells and fighting my owned summoned creature all night.

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Okay, that makes more sense. I thought you said that forcing your skill advances was leveling your character too quickly, and that was the problem.

I think the game is deliberately designed so that enemies level more efficiently. As you level, you can almost measure the uphill fight until you hit a "precipice" level and the difficulty tapers off (and then ramps up again). I noticed that it usually comes in five level intervals, give or take.

Are you actually advancing unwanted skills before wanted skills? I've noticed that in the past, I almost always advanced Minor Skills like Athletics and Mercantile before -- and more often -- than any of my Major Skills. This meant that when it came time to level, I may have advanced Athletics three times versus Marksman only one. That probably means that although I always use a bow in combat, I simply run around more often than I shoot arrows (as much as 10 times more, I would imagine).

From what I understand, the Major/Minor distinction simply has to do with how much more I have to advance a Minor Skill to receive the points I would receive from advancing a Major Skill once. Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong on that, but that's how I've always understood it.

This is perhaps a chink in the leveling system's armor, in that you can choose whatever Major and Minor Skills you want, but the skills you advance in the game are going to be the ones you ultimately do the most. You can always count on frequently advancing Athletics (or Acrobatics, if you're like me and jump instead of run). Imagine what your character would be like if Athletics was a Major Skill!

No no, you misunderstand me (or, which is probably the case, I didn't explain clearly enough)! I was referring to one of my earlier posts about a fight breaking out on the street and the dead guy had a stolen apple in his inventory, not poison apples.

I used them for nearly all of the victims in the Purification quest (apart from the Vampire, natch) once. Great fun!

Seds - I'm sure there's a bit in the Oblivion wiki about enemies levelling up substantially quicker than you and how to combat it.

Problem with Oblivion, is it's easy, due to the enemies leveling with you. I'm was at the great gate and was only level 2. On my first data I was level 20+ and still found it pretty easy. Went Imerial on my first data, Nord on 2nd. Great game, never finished it, due to formatting the HDD one, and then the other getting a new 360. So, I'll have to start again.

What does 'tab' even mean, though? As far as I'm aware, it's just another word for 'thread'. I don't really see why it gets lumped in with 'tell the poster above you why he's a nob' games.

Same with the reading thread. I don't... UNDERSTAND!

I might buy Deus Ex from Steam.

Hey MoFos. I'm looking for a site where one can watch short review videos and really get a good idea of the games. Watch the gameplay, watch the reviewer play the game etc.. Any of you know such a site? I'm only interrested in xbox 360 games.
Thanks.

Ah! Yeah, that's quite odd. But if he was a vagrant, they might have special coding to make them steal food. I've seen some of them walk directly up to storage containers.

I sampled the Halo Wars demo last night, and it's pretty great. The campaign presentation is amazing, for one; and they've streamlined the standard RTS system for console that makes a lot of sense. The greatest thing is, there's no real micro-managing: your resources are harvested automatically. Unit selection is easy and fun, and you can establish yourself very quickly with a large force, so there's not a lot of preliminary work to be done before you can start sending raiding parties.

I also like the addition of letting your units make use of cover in the field (sorta like bunkers in Starcraft, except you don't have to build them), and manned enemy towers you've cleared out.

And the MAC gun is glorious.

Any of you guys like Zero Punctuation? It's rather funny, short 'reviews.' Good it is.

There's 4 pages of videos. This link, I'm posting is the 4th page. It's the older stuff, page 1, is the newest.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...tuation?page=4

I like Yahtzee a lot, don't agree with a lot of what he says but love the way in which he chooses to say it.

Tab = Short views on something, not full blown reviews. That's how I've always seen it anyway but messageboards being messageboards, conversations and debates always follow. This isn't a game site so a thread in one of the 'misc' sections suits it fine.

Re: Deus Ex. It's a classic. Get it.

Been years since I've played it though so make sure it'll work on whatever version of Windows you're using. I've played it on XPx86 but can't vouch for anything more recent (dunno if my Vista x64 set-up would hate it or not 'cos I can't find the disc).

EDIT - On reflection, Tabs are just MoFo-speak for the types of threads I mentioned. To keep tabs on... etc etc.

I'm buying Fable 2 later on today and I have a tough descision to make . I need to decide wether I want to be a good or an evil guy (for my first play through that is). I'll go with the first persons suggestion

I just got the Super Street Fighter HD Remix or whatever you call it on my PS3. Pretty good fun playing with friends in the living room but if you go on-line and face off against strangers you're probably gonna get your ass handed to you in a bow tied hat. Like me.

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I used to be addicted to crystal meth, now I'm just addicted to Breaking Bad.

That's so funny, i was just coming in here to announce that i bought Fable II today when i borrowed it from my friend though i was evil because i can't help it when people piss me off i kill them, but i was pure which means i didn't steal or charge people tons for rent, now i'm going to play a game evil AND corrupt and see what i look like because just evil i was pretty ugly and my dog turned black...

anyway so i bought Fable II



and then i bought God of War which i've beaten 2945783457 times but have never owned and i wanna play it again and i have the second one so now i have both yay!



and then i got San Andreas which was my favorite GTA (haven't played the newest one) but again i've never owned it and it was cheap so now i do yay!

Lots more Oblivion has been played. I am Level 14 at this point, and things seem just about right. I am, as usual, having trouble staying focused on the main quest. I have still only closed one gate in the main quest, although I also closed a random gate I found in the wilderness. I have completed a fair amount of side quests, though; most of the Skingrad quests, Chorral quests, several Bruma quests, and a few Cheydinhal quests. I think I also have 3-5 Mage guild recommendations done, and I have completed a fighters guild contract. I have also cleared out quite a few of the random dungeons. I really liked the whole Pale Pass section, which I completed, as well.

I tried joining the Thieves Guild last night, but I ran out of lockpicks, and my paltry thief skills have me second guessing whether or not I should be messing about with this guild at all.

The main quest gets a little tedious with all the Oblivion gates and "go fetch this for me" missions, but it's still aces.

There will be more. They seem to multiply exponentially the more you close.

If you want to join the Dark Brotherhood eventually, you'll have to murder somebody. The best way is to find a quest where you would have to kill someone anyway, and just do it before you have to. The best option, maybe, is the Glarthir quest in Skingrad (kill him before he attacks you, or else it isn't a murder), but you may have already done that one.

They replenish. Rockmilk Cave, located about halfway between Bravil and Leyawin (just north of Water's Edge town), is a large cave with a lot of bandits inside fighting each other. You can take advantage by either waiting to fight the victors, or by killing them discreetly while they're all distracted. Lots of great armor and weaponry loot, and the bad guys replenish every three or four days.



It's slow going in the beginning, but this guild is one of the best in the game. As far as lockpicks go, seek out the Nocturnal Shrine north of Leyawin on the Yellow Road, and perform that quest. Your reward is the Skeleton Key, an unbreakable lockpick.

Ohhhhhh, that sounds like the ticket! I will get that quest going next time I play. I have yet to visit eaither of those towns yet, though!

It's funny, my 4th Mage recommendation hinges on me opening an average chest in the guild in Cheydinhal, so I need it for that, too. Odd that security plays such a big part in the mage quest. My Alteration is well above Journeyman at thhis point, but the Open Average Lock spell still hasn't appeared for sale anywhere. I need it! It seems like just as I acquire open _____ lock, all the locks step up to the level above the spell.

As for Dark Brotherhood - I found the well that leads down to it, but I haven't murdered anyone yet. Damn, I finished both Glarthir's quest and another quest with those two thieves and theiir loot. I could have killed the woman in that quest, but I talked my way into the loot instead. A corrupt guard ended up killing the woman instead of me. I am just too nice in the damn game! I figured I would get all evil with my next character.

A word of warning about the Skeleton Key, though. At one point in the main quest, Martin Septim will require that you give him a daedric artifact for use in some kind of ritual, and you won't be getting it back. Since the Skeleton Key is a daedric artifact you definitely want to keep, I recommend doing another fairly easy daedric quest so you've got something else to use. There are daedric shrines all over the map. Some are harder than others, but if you research it, you should be fine. Most of the daedric artifacts are just gag items anyway (one is a staff that can change animals into something else, like a mountain lion into a rat, and so on).

Just DON'T give Martin your Skeleton Key!

Yeah - I think I have two shrines marked on the map - The Shrine of Azura and one other one, which name escapes me at the moment. I feel like I should do another section of the main quest before launching into a bunch more side quests though, yes?

And, damn this Nirnroot! I have found 7 so far, but need 10 for the quest! I refuse to look up the locations in the guide, as it seems to take the fun out of it, but this damn stuff! I found several in the Shadow Copse, and another at the bottom of a well. I hope to run across more soon!