User talk:GW-Stabber

OMG OMG OMG
Um...isn't it 7 days? Sorry to burst your bubble... Unless somehow you're getting a copy before March 21st. &mdash; Lunarbunny 04:57, 15 March 2006 (CST)


 * I am. I preordered the collector edition ages ago and it's shipping on March 20 as far as I know -- one day before the street date. (I'll probably get it at the same time as everyone else, given shipping delays etc.) 05:17, 15 March 2006 (CST)

Item Holder
I call it a Muleâ„¢. :) -- 03:58, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
 * More RPGs need mules. I loved that about Dungeon Siege. &mdash; Stabber (talk) 12:51, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Fun! Odd how I never got around to check peoples userpages, even though I have read hundreds of your comments in the builds section =) --Xeeron 22:35, 8 March 2006 (CST)

Delete Tags
Please put the delete tags on the actual page you want deleted, not on that page's talk page. Thanks. --Rainith 16:12, 29 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Done. I wasn't sure where to place delete notices on redirected pages, but I guess it isn't all that important to preserve the redirect behaviour if the whole point is to delete the page. &mdash; Stabber (talk) 16:35, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Damage rework?
I don't suppose you got around to the damage article rewrite before you take off did you? Oh well, see you when Ch2 comes out. -PanSola 08:22, 3 December 2005 (UTC)


 * I'm still around, but will take off after the weekend. I tried doing something with the damage article, but it is way too hard. I'm now very impressed with whatever you guys did. Good job. 13:13, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Re: Team - Barrage/Pet (Tomb Ruins)
Very interesting build. I was wondering, do you have any idea how to work a W/R into the build? Lack of 13 Expertise is a serious deficiency. If it is completely impossible, how about a R/W? Is Rebirth really that important? Doesn't Frenzy indirectly boost the speed of Barrage? (Barrage is an attack skill? Actually, lemme check right now.)  69.124.143.230 06:16, 18 February 2006 (CST)


 * The build isn't mine (I'm just the scribe), but I do agree that it's a neat build. Personally, I think warriors got the short end of the stick in this area as they will keep getting blinded and crippled by Fingers of Chaos. (This applies for secondary warriors also.) Frenzy will boost attack speed (and hence the barrage rate), but as an IAS is actually a really bad idea. Each Energy Surge will do 160 damage; suffer two or three of them, and your monk will be freaking out. Cry of Frustration does a whopping 80 damage under Frenzy. Sorry, I don't see an obvious way to work W/Rs into b/p builds. 06:25, 18 February 2006 (CST)


 * Well, what about Flurry? The reduced damage doesn't affect all the stacked +Damage, does it?  I just... want my W/R to be able to join all these darn b/p parties ;_; *sob*  Damn FoC and blinding >.<  69.124.143.230 07:33, 18 February 2006 (CST)


 * You can change your R/W's secondary to monk and buy rebirth (at most its 1 skill point and 1 platinum, not a huge sacrafice). Or change secondary to Mesmer and bring Resurrection Signet.  W/R has no place in the build ever, it has no chance to survive make its time. | Chuiu 07:45, 18 February 2006 (CST)

Ashes ritual vote
Just a note that you might want to specify your secondary vote if you have one (ie if "Ash Rite" does not pass what's your next choice of naming). -PanSola 18:29, 22 February 2006 (CST)
 * No second choice. Just what I said. If it dooesn't pass, oh well. 18:37, 22 February 2006 (CST)

Chp 2 Weapons
I noticed you added the Chapter 2 template. Sorry, it never crossed my mind. Also, with the Glowing Chakram/Glowing Focus articles, the screen says Glowing Focus. I went with Chakram when creating the article, cause thats what it looked like. How do you delete an article once its been created and I'll get rid of that Glowing Chakram article. Thanks for looking out for me ;) --Gares Redstorm 07:31, 23 February 2006 (CST)
 * You need to attract the attraction of an admin usually to get something deleted around here. (Rainith commonly takes care of this janitorial aspect of the wiki.) The usual way to flag something for deletion is to add  at the top of the article.  07:35, 23 February 2006 (CST)
 * Thanks. I think I've caused enough destruction here for one day. Guess I'll go in-game and cause some destruction there. --Gares Redstorm 07:42, 23 February 2006 (CST)
 * Heh. Stick around here long enough to get involved in Guildwiki politics, and you'll see what real destruction looks like. You haven't done any destruction that even registers as a faint blip on the radar. Happy hunting! 07:45, 23 February 2006 (CST)

Anti climax!
Aaargh, you just gave me the total rollercoaster happy/unhappy ride of the day. You wrote in the change log six new slots confirmation but what you really meant was six slots in total confirmed. (I think it's great with some solid info, but darn, I just thought I'd have 10 slots with Factions...) --Bishop 08:55, 28 February 2006 (CST)
 * Oops, that should have been "new six slots confirmation". 08:57, 28 February 2006 (CST)

W/Me Hydra Slayer
Thanks for moving that, and the changes make it look much cleaner. - Evil_Greven 09:44, 2 March 2006 (CST)
 * HI. Just noticed this comment, so sorry for the late response. Thanks, but I don't think I did anything significant to that article. Sorry I had to leave when you messaged me in game yesterday. I had only popped in to verify a quick detail and shouldn't really have been playing GW at that time. 21:50, 2 March 2006 (CST)

Dis
Does it not work against Zaishen Elite? Or is it so obvious that it isn't even worth mentioning? I never even thought of using that... but what did the old version have to say about Tombs + Zaishen Elite? 69.124.143.230 11:21, 3 March 2006 (CST)


 * Well, I reverted that note because it replaced a useful observation (EoE bomb doesn't work against the Unworthy) with a sort of obvious observation (EoE bomb works on the Zaishen). If you think that the observation about the Zaishen is interesting, feel free to add it back, but please don't take out the note about the Unworthy. 11:32, 3 March 2006 (CST)


 * Ah, well... for some reason, I always figured the Zaishen were like a special kind of NPC... something like Collectors and how they don't take damage from PC/Hench death. But rethinking that logic, they're more like henchmen anyways, right?  So yes, it is rather obvious - except for dummies like me.  Regardless, I didn't notice that the Unworthy note was a revert - I thought you were taking the other guy's edit and just replacing it with something new -- looking back in the history I see that's not the case.  So eh, never mind me.  69.124.143.230 12:47, 3 March 2006 (CST)


 * I think Stabber's missing the reason for the original change: there are no more unworthies. You fight Zaishen instead.  So where you once couldn't edge bomb unworthies, you can now edge bomb Zaishen.  Either the old note should go or the newer one should be put back.  --68.142.14.59 12:56, 3 March 2006 (CST)


 * OK, reverting my own edit then. 13:09, 3 March 2006 (CST)

Disillusionment
I sympathize with you; I too am reconsidering purchasing Factions. 69.124.143.230 03:43, 4 March 2006 (CST)

I'm sorry you seem so unhappy with GW and its players. I really don't think it's all about items and farming, and I really think a lot of other people would agree with me and you on that. But a lot of people like getting rich and having stuff, so ANet provides for them also. It is too bad that places end up filled with people just hunting items and doing the same repetitive things over and over again. But there really are people out there who want the challenges and the fun that comes with them, not just making cookie-cutter groups and getting everything as fast as possible. As a possible suggestion, it might be nice to break up the districts more so people can actually find the people they want to play with. I'd be happy for there to be a "Farming" district(s), so those people can go there and stop bothering me. =) I'm too lazy to really promote ideas on forums, but there it is.

For what it's worth, I'll be continuing to play Guild Wars and having fun as long as I can, and I'll certainly be in there for Factions. --JoDiamonds 03:44, 4 March 2006 (CST)


 * Oh, and Oblivion will probably be even worse than GW. That's why you should stick to Morrowind.
 * *flee* 69.124.143.230 05:49, 8 March 2006 (CST)

Lich Drop Rates
He dropped a decayed orr emblem for me today. :) --Karlos 23:31, 7 March 2006 (CST)

"Core" category crusade
Can you please put your "Skills by campaign" category crusade on hold for a bit, please? I'm writing a lenghty post about how we should handle categories on GuildWiki in future in such a way that they are actually useful, especially regarding the new campaigns. Depending on the outcome of the discussion we may have revamp your cursade. Would be a pity to do the work twice. -- 21:42, 10 March 2006 (CST)
 * OK. Let me know when I should continue and if I should revert anything. 21:43, 10 March 2006 (CST)


 * Hey Stabber, where did you get that info about the Factions skills? 69.124.143.230 04:16, 11 March 2006 (CST)


 * PvP character creation screen. All of them show up as "locked" at the moment, though. 04:18, 11 March 2006 (CST)


 * Ahhh, yes. That would make sense with the new update too -- regarding showing skills in "unavailable" state, and all.  Do the skills have descriptions with them?  I'm not about to delete one of my RP characters to see the PvP screen.  (Though I wonder if they're at any of the Priests of Balthazar?)  69.124.143.230 04:40, 11 March 2006 (CST)


 * Nope, the descriptions etc. are blacked out now. Only the skill names are visible in the "locked" state, like back during the PvP preview weekend. I can take a screenshot of it if you are really curious what it looks like. 04:42, 11 March 2006 (CST)


 * Nah, it's no big deal. Just curious.  69.124.143.230 04:47, 11 March 2006 (CST)


 * Tetris, have you finished writing your grand polemic yet? 12:49, 11 March 2006 (CST)


 * I posted it here, but nobody replied yet. :/ -- 04:06, 13 March 2006 (CST)


 * Hmm, you seem to be soliciting comments in general than having a specific proposal. You appear to be against a page like Skills by Campaign, instead preferring such pages to arise automagically out of categories. If so, surely my crusade -- adding Category:Core skills to core skills, and likely also Category:Prophecies Campaign skills and Category:Factions Campaign skills for their respective kinds -- is according to your preferred scheme. May I resume my crusade? 11:41, 13 March 2006 (CST)


 * Your suggestion makes sense to me Stabber. --Rainith 12:02, 13 March 2006 (CST)

crusade
For what it's worth, on at least some of the notes I very intentionally used because I was copying identical text to multiple pages, making that perfect (and useful if someone else wants to copy the text to new skills in Factions or whatnot). | example. All that said, I don't care much if you or whoever hates pagename for some reason and wants it gone, just figured I'd explain the reasoning. --JoDiamonds 13:01, 11 March 2006 (CST)


 * Hmm, the word "crusade" was used in jest, as I only removed PAGENAME from one or two pages. I guess Evil Greven took up that mantle for a few more pages. I generally have no objection to PAGENAME except when it's used in the body text, for which I think you should use . Wiki syntax is arcane enough as it is without these crutches. In any case, if you want PAGENAME back in those pages, feel free to revert my edit. I'll just request that you make the use of PAGENAME consistent across the entire page, instead of replacing just one or two instances of the page name with it.  13:26, 11 March 2006 (CST)


 * Well, I did kind of. The main reason for the little crusade of sorts was all the problems we've been having, where we've been needing to re-upload skill images with the proper name to work correctly with the skill template.  Hence the 'preemptive' thingy. It's in case it is decided to simplify the boss templates in the future, and try to maintain some consistancy.  While I'm not (right now anyway) going to mess with existing images, I figured I'd stop a potential problem before it started. - Evil_Greven 13:40, 11 March 2006 (CST)

Vandal
It'd save time at the very end if we keep him busy so he doesn't spread out the damage. Otherwise we'll just spend the rest of the night finding every page he screwed up. Better to keep him isolated... but it's no big deal either way, so I'll just let it go. I was having some fun though >_> Evan The Cursed (Talk) 09:44, 13 March 2006 (CST)
 * Though at the very least we should make sure he doesn't remove his ban tag again. Which reminds me, has anybody left a message for Rainith and/or 84 -whatshisname?  Evan The Cursed (Talk) 09:45, 13 March 2006 (CST)
 * Yeah, at first he was only hitting one page; I reverted a couple times, then ignored him. When I looked again, once that page remained, he had started hitting several others. --Barek 09:46, 13 March 2006 (CST)


 * I thought he was tiring, but after about an hour I think he's getting off on it, Barek. Evan The Cursed (Talk) 09:48, 13 March 2006 (CST)


 * The problem with persistent chaps like this one is that pretty soon you have reverts everywhere and it makes the admin's job harder as they have to verify that every one of the reverts were done properly and so on. It also pollutes the article histories and the recent changes page. The only revert war worth fighting is to keep the ban request itself alive. All IMHO, of course. Thanks for both of your dilligence, by the way 09:49, 13 March 2006 (CST)


 * Aye, I seriously need a drink right now, anyways. So I'll just step out for now.  Evan The Cursed (Talk) 09:51, 13 March 2006 (CST)

PvE vs PvP
PvP is not that much fun for me. :( But at least there are no scammers trying to use you to get to get a skill cap then jump ship. :) The present state of PvP in HA is disguisting. You stand for hours, making a team, try to run in, get killed at the UW map, go out, fine tune, go in, die, go out, try again, score a win, ..., etc. It's pathetic. It's like going back to 8 member FoW farming groups that get killed by the first batch of Shadow Army they meet. It's very hard for me to get into. I do the Arenas, but HoH requires a huge investment of time (to build a solid N list) which I feel pain whenever I think about. So, I stick to PvE most of the time. Besting the hardest areas, proving the impossible possible. (Like freeing the Forgemaster with a two man team.)

PvP suffers from the same problem as PvE, PuGs are a nightmare. --Karlos 08:31, 14 March 2006 (CST)


 * Yeah, rank discrimination is pretty bad in HA, but to be fair, PUGs have always sucked hard here. I was lucky to find a guild of noobs who all rose to r6 together (before disbanding). When I say PvP, I generally mean TA or GvG, which are both a thousand times more fun than HA IMHO. I've actually not gone on a single HA run for over three months, and don't miss it one bit. Heck, even if rank discrimation were to magically disappear tomorrow, I still wouldn't bother with HA. It stopped being fun to me long ago, and I say this as someone who lived through the air spike, dual smite, and spirit spam days. Those builds were fun to counter. IWAY and ranger spike (and now blood spike and the bastard children of IWAY) are just not fun to play against. 08:47, 14 March 2006 (CST)


 * Team Arenas and Random are fun (and I hope they will install random 1 on 1 and world-cup style 1-on-1). Guild Battles are fun but are SO long they are zzzzz. Introducing Victory or Death helped heaps. I am curious about the large-scale battles, but I am sure those will drag on for hours :). --Karlos 06:38, 16 March 2006 (CST)

A Favor
Since you're kind of "in charge" of the list of skill anomalies, do you think you could take a look at 68.41.210.198's talk page, and maybe look into Grenth's Balance. It seems kind of odd that it would do that if you have more health than your target. I don't have a Necro to test this (or at least none post-searing w/ the skill), and the user never got back to me on my last question. Evan The Cursed (Talk) 13:36, 15 March 2006 (CST)


 * I have responded to that user's talk page. 14:57, 15 March 2006 (CST)


 * Cool, thanks a bunch. Evan The Cursed (Talk) 04:47, 16 March 2006 (CST)

Unsigned comments
How do you attach a signature to unsigned comments? you know that whole 'the preceeding unsigned comment was made... blah blah blah' thing. can anyone do it? 15:01, 15 March 2006 (CST)


 * Yeah, you just need to use the unsigned template. Look at the source of one of the pages to see how it's used. You can get the posting time and the user name from the history of the page the unsigned comment was made in. 15:09, 15 March 2006 (CST)

Sorry!
Oops, sorry for assuming! Shandy 17:49, 15 March 2006 (CST)

arg
you foiled my assassination attempt on the ToC!!! -PanSola 21:09, 15 March 2006 (CST)

4 more years days!
Looks like it'll be another 4 days until I take a new hiatus from Guild Wars. Thank you for keeping us up to date on this very important life-related information. ;) -- 17:32, 16 March 2006 (CST)


 * OH NOES!!! I just found out it won't be in stores here until the 24th! My life is shambles. -- 17:41, 16 March 2006 (CST)


 * preordering ftw!!! 17:44, 16 March 2006 (CST)


 * But I live in $smallsillycountry, so pre-orders end up taking longer to get here because of mail delays and other crap. It used to be that games wouldn't come out here until weeks after they launched, but at least that's changed somewhat now. :O -- 17:49, 16 March 2006 (CST)

Leaving
I guess you got your copy of Oblivion, huh? :) Anyway, sad to see you go, but I've got a feeling I'll be seeing you over on Obliviwiwiwkiki or whatever it's called today, so I figure it's not a complete loss. -- 19:32, 21 March 2006 (CST)


 * Thanks for all your contributions and your delightful wit. :) Have fun whatever you end up doing. --Karlos 05:18, 22 March 2006 (CST)


 * Bah, you loser. I liked that category proposal.  And the snide comments.  Now what reason do I have to stay?  *sniff*  Evan The Cursed (Talk) 08:40, 22 March 2006 (CST)


 * Hey, I've never spoken to you before, but you've done a lot of good work here. Specifically your user page; that Item Holder build got me out of some tight spots, let me tell you!


 * Good luck in whatever you end up doing! May Balthazar's blessings shine upon you! Or something. Bye. 00:31, 23 March 2006 (CST)


 * Yay! Not leaving? Great! 08:07, 25 March 2006 (CST)


 * Welcome back! Been a while. :) --Karlos 10:39, 25 March 2006 (CST)

Competitive Missions are a failure
Can you explain? not all of us got there. 01:17, 26 March 2006 (CST)


 * I am confused about the Alliance Battles. They seem to be pretty random. I don't get to choose the battle I will fight in or the party or anything. Now, after WINNING the mission, I am returned there with the option of forming a 4 man party. But a day later, I can't go back to that same place (Saltspary Beach) and have to play the Etnaran Keys. What gives?


 * The smaller competitive missions would become like HoH if they would allo party forming. As it stands now it's total randomness. I assume some internal AI tries to even out the professions, but still, it's crazy, you enter with 8 people who can be anything: super PvPers, lamers, quitters, 8 yr old boys. --Karlos 02:38, 26 March 2006 (CST)

They are a failure because they aren't actually "competitive PvE", as I had initially been led to believe. They are actually PvP, with all the associated baggage. PvP spiced up with some additional henchies. And it appears that these missions are required to proceed beyond the initial radius of towns. In other words, this is Anet running in the opposite direction from their claims that "PvEers will not have to touch PvP with a 10 foot pole" and deep into the "GW is a PvP game" land. In a way it is good. There is no more of this multiple ways of playing a game nonsense that plagued GWP. Bye bye, GW. You will lose the PvE crowd and 90% of your player base. Bye bye Anet. 03:01, 26 March 2006 (CST)


 * I was also a bit dissapointed on the competitive missions. Anet told us that they are mostly PvE with just some PvP added to them. In reality they are completely PvP, which doesn't satisfy many. For me this isn't that bad, as it finally gives me some initiative to PvP, but I was hoping for a lot more. Atleast we are not required to play through many of those missions in the Factions storyline (or so they said). 03:06, 26 March 2006 (CST)


 * According to what Stabber said above, "it appears that these missions are required to proceed beyond the initial radius of towns." I've only been playing for a few hours since I've been so busy lately, but if that's true then that indeed would mean that we are required to play through many of those missions in the Factions storyline.  Or maybe I am missing something myself.  Evan The Cursed (Talk) 03:26, 26 March 2006 (CST)


 * I don't think you guys have the full picture. There are cooperative missions. I finished The Eternal Grove yesterday and it was HARD (it's like Thunderhead Keep). It's your typical PvE mission. Basically, if you do the Kurzick primary quests (Befriending the Kurzicks and then Invoking the Saints, you get to this mission. Wehn you finish it you get to the Valsburg Armory, from there you can pick up a quest to take you to the next mission, The Unwaking Waters I believe. That part is not working. Not sure if it's the proverbial "edge-of-the-world" or it's just a bug. This is pretty much like Prophecies, quests and missions to advance the plot. And you don't have to come anywhere near the Jade Quarry or Ft. Aspenwood. (They will help you get the 10,000 faction faster though). I am actually pleased with what I saw in terms of PvE. Though that was not until I figured out how that completing that 10,000 faction quest advances the plot. --Karlos 04:46, 26 March 2006 (CST)

I thoguht Ford Aspenwood and Jade Quarry were the Competitive Missions, and Alliance Battles are rabbits of a different color all together... And from the strategy written for Ford Aspenwood, it seems to be focused on killing enemy NPCs most of the time as opposed to enemy players. -SolaPan 09:22, 26 March 2006 (CST)


 * I think we have to be clear. i believe Stabber very clearly said "Competitive Missions" and not Alliance Battles.  ABs are a completely different bag of treats altogether, and THANKFULLY are... about as unrelated to PvE as HoH is to PvE in Prophecies... oh wait...  Evan The Cursed (Talk) 07:46, 27 March 2006 (CST)
 * Well, his comment that "In other words, this is Anet running in the opposite direction from their claims that "PvEers will not have to touch PvP with a 10 foot pole" and deep into the "GW is a PvP game" land." still seem to have no basis. As Karlos said, PvEers don't have to touch Ford Aspenwood nor Jade Quarry with a 10-inch pole.  "Being related" isn't a bad thing.  "Being forced to play the other playstyle" is.  I, as a PvEer, entered the Ford Aspendwood and Jade Quarry outposts to claim experience points, but otherwise didn't do the PvP at all.  It did not hinder my PvE experience, so I don't understand why Stabber thinks 90% of the PvEers are going to leave.  -SolaPan 10:04, 27 March 2006 (CST)

How is Oblivion anyways?
I know I said it would be crap up there, but I'm actually quite curious. And I can't ask any of my friends because they're bloody Bethesda fanboys. >_> Evan The Cursed (Talk) 03:26, 26 March 2006 (CST)


 * After a ridiculous shipment delay and then two days of fighting with it, I am spent. Oblivion won't run on my computer. Its crashing mode is so incredibly annoying (it deletes itself on crash forcing a reinstall or a copy from some other location) that I don't have the tenacity or desire to try to figure out its problem. I'll wait for a patch, and if no patches come, I'll simply write it up as another monumentous disappointment. Such is a gamer's life. 03:32, 26 March 2006 (CST)


 * For what it's worth, my friend was utterly and completely plagued with crashes until he turned off the "Anti-Aliasing" graphics option, and hasn't had a crash for days since then (playing pretty much constantly). I don't know if that would help, but he said it was a major difference.  Personally, I'm just waiting for a patch before even buying the game.  =)  --JoDiamonds 22:50, 26 March 2006 (CST)


 * I've tried every combination of graphics settings imaginable. Believe me, if it was something as simple as turning off AA, I'd be playing Oblivion right now instead of GW. 00:20, 27 March 2006 (CST)


 * I've been running the 360 version, works fine for me :| 01:13, 27 March 2006 (CST)


 * That's because it's the 360 version. Like all once-PC games horrifically mutilated into console games, of course they run better (at all?) on their console ports.  I bet the controls are geared towards the console, as well.  Okay so yeah my pessimism has returned full force, meh.  Evan The Cursed (Talk) 07:41, 27 March 2006 (CST)

Finally got it to work after fiddling with my motherboard's firmware and disabling every audio acceleration foobar there is. It's running at a solid 30fps at 1152x864 with HDR lighting and most details set to max (no self shadows, though). Sound's awful at the moment, but there are some posts on the elderscrolls.com forum now about how to fix the sound choppiness, so I am optimistic.

The graphics are awesome, of course. And I'm sure the story will be first rate. Loved the character creation/tutorial -- eons ahead of Morrowind in terms of sophistication. Will play more later -- too exhausted from the factions preview weekend. (And I have a whole 1.2 gb of screenshots to sort through and make articles about. Hoo boy!) 16:25, 27 March 2006 (CST)


 * I have, in fact, secured my own copy of oblivion for the PC and have managed to sucessufully run it for several days now. at least until i tried to softmod my gpu rom by flashing the bios and then had it get corrupted half way through and now i'm out about $150... but that's another story.  doesn't matter i was going to replace it anyway, sob.


 * anyhow, the game works for me but i do get occasional crashes. oblivion appears to have a memory leak problem similar to the one that plagued morrowind.  after extended play oblivion wil have grown from around 200,000K system memeory (which, in and of itself is rediculous) to around 500,000K+ system memory at which point most systems will force a soft crash.  i have also heard there are ridiculous frame rate issues with the 7800 and 7900 series NVIDIA cards where even SLI set ups can only manage an average of 20-30FPS.  lastly i have heard that some creative sound cards on some systems have issues with oblivion as well so if you're having problems you might want to disable hardware sound in the oblivion.ini file found in my documents/my games/oblivion, and switching it to software sound.  just scroll down teh ini till you get to the sound portion and look for the options for it.  if that works you might want to try and repair your windows installation which should clear out any drivers you have in the registry.  in my experience frame rate is higher and game play more solid after you repair your windows install.


 * the game iteself is quite fun, in it's own way. like morrowind it has a really enjoyable world where exploration is fantastic and engaging and quests are openended and interesting.  story line is better than ever with full voice-overs.  stealing things is so much more immersive and fun than it ever was in morrowind.  i find myself noticing some npc wearing nice cloths and think, wow thy must have money better rob their house.  so i follow them until i can pick their pocket and steal their house key, pickpocketing actually works even outside now and almost everyone has something worth taking.  keep following until the go home for the night and wait an hour or two outside.  then sneak in and clean the place out.  being a vampire is much better than in was in morrowind.  fast travel is still possible if you plan it right unlike morrowind where no one would talk to you.  you can still talk to anyone and no one can tell you're a vampire, as long as you kep up the upkeep cost of feeding every night or evey other night.  sunlight doesn't even hurt you if you feed every night.  the more you feed the weaker you are as a vampire though so it's fairly balanced in this way.  o yeah and feeding doesn't kill people, which is good because there aren't really any extemporanious characters like in morrowind, well there are but they make the world so much more interesting when they're still breathing.  i have done almost none of the main quest at this point so i really don't know anything about oblivion.


 * however, the new balancing action that was taken to eliminate the 'everything is to easy for my lvl 20 character' in morrowind problem has introduced a lot of problems. now that enimies level with you and so does loot there is a much smaller incentive to explore and if you're playing a skill set with non-combat major skills you can basically make the game unplayable without turning the difficult way down by leveling.  when you level foes take longer to take down and are harder to hit and hit you harder so if you're leveling from non-combat skills your combat profecincy stays the same make everything much harder.  also, guards will always always always kick your ass (unless the difficulty is turned way down) which for me sucks.  i liked being able to level very very high in morrowind so i could eventually one hit ko anything from sneak attack mode.  in this game it actually works best if you choose very controlable skills that you use very rarely as major skills and the skills you really want as minors.  by doing so you can control your level very easily and practice whenever you're ready to level.  so, in short, if you pick a role playing character skill set with skills like athletics, sneak, acrobatics, or speechcraft playing the game normally, by sticking to towns to startwith and focusing on non-combat, will make higher level quests, with combat, to hard to finish.


 * so, in short, non-combat aspects of the game are awesome. character interactions are better than ever, stealth is miles beyond morrowind, speechcraft and security now have mini-games that make such actions more involved and interesting, fully voiced actors breath life into even mundane quests, and i'm sure that if i ever get to it oblivion itself will be very very cool.  on the other hand combat sucks, i only play on the hardest difficulty and this makes fighting in this game so difficult it really is insane.  things got better after i mastered sneaking but i really find myself exploting the AI or terrain to win battles (like jumping on a rock since monsters can't jump or conintually attacking from behind because, for some reason, after getting shot in the back they don't automatically turn around).  i'd say overall my experience with the game has been around an 8.0 of 10 and it's mostly because the non-combat parts of the game are so much fun i can't give the game a lower score than that. 16:59, 27 March 2006 (CST)