that's what I thought, but everything apart from the fact that the levels folder has 2 maps, seems to indicate the full game.

Readme, writing on the cd, manual, game content for the rest of the game etc. 

i dont understand how one could give a game a decent rating that needs 3+ mods to be played. 

it's not that you need to play it with mods, but that they are easily accessible (there were some mods out a day or two after the game came out).

i played the game without any mods for the first 2 or 3 days, and absolutely loved it. but i'm notorious for customizing my games... i often replace sound effects which i don't like in games i play(heh, you should hear how my copy of WoW sounds like...)

the only major gripe i have about oblivion that i think really requires a mod is the thing about leveled monsters and loot-- how it's impossible to find cool loot at low levels, and how at high lvls, cool loot is *everywhere*.
it makes the game too easy as well, by having monsters always the same level as me. i mean, what is the point of lvling up if the monsters scale with me? if i pick up the quad damage and pentagram in quake, do other monsters become more powerful? 

I would enjoy the game with no mods (even despite the auto-leveling); it's just that the moddible nature of it allows you to tweak it to make it even better, per your own preferences and idiosyncrasies. 

it sounded like those mods greatly enhance gameplay to me, thus my comment :) 

beaten (like a horse without the �1.99 armour addon installed ^_~), but what necros and pjw said. The fact that there were about 35,478,653 separate mods available within 7 days of the game's release, coupled with the almost completely freeform nature of the game, I think means that there are plenty of ways to tinker with it here and there without actually breaking the overall experience. A lot of people are having *vastly* different experiences of the game without modding it anyway.

As for me, well I'm still not gonna apply any mods simply because I like the game perfectly well as it is. I'm actually warming to the levelled monsters too - there is already enough variation in the difficulty of the encounters imo - every fight is a challenge, but a satisfying one, and I will meet monsters who I can eviscerate easily just as often as I meet those who will end up chasing me screaming into the nearest town. It all depends on your character choices really - I seem to be rather shite with magic and bows atm (I'm working on it), but a bit tasty with a blade - this obviously is gonna make combats different depending on who I'm up against. I'm guessing necros must be playing some leet ninja battlemagey-type if he's finding *all* the combats easy. I can still make myself more powerful without levelling up, just by for example buying new spells, or scrounging better equipment.

In fact, I've deliberately chosen not to level up for bit anyway - I'm staying at lvl 11 and not sleeping, just seeing how far I can raise my stats before I decide I'm ready for lvl 12.

The balance just means that, unusually in a game of this type, most quests are potentially doable, regardless of where you are, which I feel is probably an improvement on having to do quests in a more ordered fashion, depending on your level. At the end of the day it gives players more choice, which I think is a good thing 

are there no other new games? except this oblivion thing
any1 played call of chtulu on pc? or any non-ww2 shooters? 

Call of Cthulhu is out on PC now? 

Well, as soon as one starts playing Oblivion, one tends to become oblivious (lol, see what I did there? ^_~), to other new releases... 

for CoC. afaik, it hasn't been released yet.

it's too bad it's being released now though (april 21?) because i'm busy with oblivion. :P 

Yes, I would like some comments on that too. I was planning to order it from the UK along with Quake 4, because it is dirt cheap. I've been holding back because I just moved apartment and have no money. 

has devoured my life. 

has devoured my life too. 

 

it's funny cause i stopped playing oblivion about 2 weeks ago. o.0 never completed the main quest either. heh, i'm sure i'll get back to it, but i had a sudden brainwave and had to get mapping on it. :P 

what's oblivion mappage like? Is it easy to bolt new terrain sections on, extending the current map - or are you making new stuff that drops into the existing world?

I'm seriously thinking of getting back into mappery because of Oblivion :} 

sry, i didn't mean mapping for oblivion. :) i have no idea about how it is to map for it, however, from my brief looksee in the contruction set, it looks to be very similar to morrowind, in that buildings and such are built from prefab mesh objects.

if you wanted to make new terrain outside of the current terrain available, i think you need to download a mod to remove the borders around the area so you'd be able to get to it.
however, i've heard the terrain beyond the borders is generated by the computer or something... but i'm just guessing at that point.

neither morrowind or oblivion have ever made me want to make a 'map' for them. i just can't stand working with prefabs, and doing mesh work and then texturing my own prefabs was too much work, imo. (plus morrowind crashes all the time for me, so it wasn't really worth the effort anyway; oblivion doesn't though) 

Is something I am definately interested in. There is quite a big amount of quality visual mods already so what I would be interested in doing is adding new game areas and quests. 

ioc :P

Hehe, I imagined you might have been interested in doing some kind of dungeon crawl.

After I struck victory in the Siege of Kvatch over the weekend, I made a comment in IRC that some of the hordes I came up against in the courtyards and underhalls of that doomed city felt positively Necrosian. >:} 

The hero of Kvatch!

Get used to it, you'll be hearing it every five minutes from now on ;)

I played with the mode tools briefly, slotting bits together to make new dungeons seems pretty easy but like you guys I'd rather be working on a proper new area. Inserting things into the existing map, or the spaces just beyond the empire's borders seems a bit chancy, especially since the neighbouring areas will probably be expansion pack fodder. We need a proper new bit, like an offshore island accessed by chartering a ship from Anvil. Not sure how well that could work though.

Also, is it just me or are goblins ten times harder to kill than everything else in the game? Even the more vicious kinds of Daedra are pansies compared to goblins. I think it's the really fast attacks and constant charges that makes them so annoying. 

horde combat is the only thing that's challenging any more.

too bad the monsters aren't all that visually appealing. :P and really, who names a monster "clannfear"? o.0
i'll take a shambler or mancubus anyday. :P 

i'll take a shambler or mancubus anyday.

from behind, no doubt. 

crouched right into that one. -_- 

You've gotten out of mappery? 

Kinn got a game industry job at a UK console game developer so he obviously doesn't have much time for "community mapping".