Saturday 27 August 2011

Farewell Oblivion Community - Temporarily

 UPDATE:  I know I whinge about this game but for some reason I always come back to it.  That's why I added "Temporarily" to the title.  This time I'm going to be more selective about which mods I add besides the ones I can't live without....and one day I will update the post I made here about that...lol.

As mentioned in a newer post I'm getting stir crazy without my games due to the dead hard drive and since I'm also getting a new graphics card, as well as a new hard drive, I can't wait to have a play again.  More than that I think, I miss fiddling around in the CS and now Spring is here i might even finish some projects I started and start some new ones I had ideas about.

The stuff below the stars is still true and many things bug me about the vanilla game, but it's still one of my favourite games, even though it lacks a lot of things, in my opinion.  But, that's what mods are for and the modding community is still going strong even though Skyrim is on the horizon.. 

I've also made some changes to the bottom of this post because in the past few days I've had a revelation about the TES Community, or at least the Tesnexus, Official forums part of it and a few others.  The rest don't seem to care about thieves or their mods, but that's their problem, not mine.  This is due to the trouble over Gmods which I've spoken about in other posts and goes to prove that a community of gamers can stick together when the going gets tough.

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Well, I think my Oblivion days are almost over.  There's very little left that interests me except for Waalx Animals and Creatures and Elsweyr the Deserts of Anequina which are the only reasons I still play it, when I do that is.  It's been months since I did play it more than to upgrade one of my mods.  Maybe I'll have another play before Skyrim gets here as I did with Morrowind before Oblivion, but at the present I have no interest at all.

I still look for and download mods though, which has become more of a habit than anything as I don't even use or look at the greater majority of them in game, so who knows, I may change my mind.

I'm not one for serious screen shooting or the type of role playing many are into.  For me the game doesn't have the scope for real role playing as I see it, especially without mods to add things like crafting, cooking, having a job, joinable guilds, real consequences for your actions, real factions that cut you out of others because you joined the wrong one and much more that just annoys me no end.  There are mods that do add some of these things, but they should have been in the actual game, or some of them at least. 

I HATE the way the direction the game is going as far as some mods that are just sick and degrading, yet seem to be more and more popular.  Refer to my other posts if you want info on that, but suffice to say I think there are some sick minded people out there, especially where rape, bestiality and other questionable content is concerned.  I'm not talking about the role playing sex mods where one can act out a life that includes it, although I can't find a place in a game for it myself when the reality is much more....real.  I've said enough about that on this blog so I won't bother elaborating and boring people with it again.  I just wonder where morals and a sense that something is just "wrong" flew away to, even in a game.

When I play a game like one from the Gothic series and now Age of Conan and other games as well, the things that annoy the hell out of me in Oblivion just seem so much more obvious.  Like the incessant loading screens, however brief, especially to enter every tiny room in a building, which really gets me down.  One example that stands out is loading into a tent in a well known cave near Leyawiin.  A tent you can't even turn around in!! ....why they didn't just leave this tent and other entrances open is anyone's guess.  That particular tent has a dog in it so I suppose they didn't want it wandering when there was fighting going on....who knows.  In the two games I just mentioned there are NO or very few loading screens anywhere let alone into something as small as a tiny tent.  Changing world spaces I can understand, but not everywhere you go in a town or city because the game engine is crap.  These other games NEVER crash or act up either which is another plus in their favour even though they have so much more content and action happening at once.

I find myself avoiding cities and NPC's because of the stupid AI, inane comments and awful voice acting that is used for every race, generic cut and paste dungeons and a lot more.  If it weren't for the amazing modders that made this game what it should have been, as far as humanly possible, I would have uninstalled it a couple of years ago.  In my opinion it was released as a base for modders to fix, not a real game.

Then there are the CTD's and other problems that still occur even with every mod and available fix applied because of a game engine that can't handle a living breathing world.  This is why the cities are almost deserted, there are very few animals and the AI can't handle more than around 15 actors on screen at once without the "statue" effect.  I'm sick of the micro management to keep a game running from one play session to the next.

At this point in time I can't be bothered with it.  I work to get my game stable and running smoothly and then for no explicable reason it starts acting up.   My patience is wearing very thin.  I probably know more about this game and how it works than any other I've ever played, especially since I mod it, personally and in released mods which don't really show how much I do actually know.

I can do world building and editing, some basic scripting and quest work as well as other things.  As far as quests go I don't use them in my released mods, except for a couple of small ones, because the mods I make are ones I always like to play with and it peeves me when I have to do my own quest over again for every new character.  That's not to say I'm ungrateful for the epic quest mods that are around...I thank the people who have the patience to do it and have enjoyed their work immensely.

Then there's the recent furor over the upgrade to Tesnexus and it's other game sections.  This was very nearly the nail in the coffin for me and almost put me off altogether.  However it is growing on me, especially since some changes gave been made.  I'm having a problem with downloading anything, but since it seems to be hard to nail down what that problem actually is, and I'm not alone, I'll wait until a solution is found...hopefully.   At the  moment there's not much that interests me in the newer files and I also don't want to download much until I get my computer fixed....see newer posts re hard drive.

My main gripe about Tesnexus as a community though is some of the people and I guess it's a bit like the old saying "You can choose your friends, but not your family."   Or something like that.  Like any group of people there are some I wouldn't give the time of day to and others who could be good friends, and in fact some are.  Some of them are my age and older, not just some of the younger members.

I haven't been as active in the community as I used to be because the community has changed and is definitely not as friendly.  I suppose that's because it's grown so much since I joined.  Too many chiefs and not enough Indians as the saying goes and I'm not talking about the staff.  The normal members, who think they are the be all and end all of the community and get to say what others can think and say just grates on my nerves.  It's like any family where the bullies rule, get away with it, and everyone else is expected to tow the line.

If I ever see this emote, and it's other forms again, related to people having a voice it will be too soon. 


Re the Tesnexus upgrade....There are things I don't like about the upgrade, but it's here to stay and I admit it's growing on me.  Orange isn't one of my favourite colours either, but at least it was toned down.  It's better than the Fallout colours though...lol.

I've removed the rest of the rant.  Over the past days it's proven to me just how close a community can be when something threatens it.  Refer to the posts about Gmods.com.   It's pointless and self defeating to whine and complain about things I can't change and that are often bought about by my own personal problems.  It  might make me feel some kind of relief for a short time because I can say what I like here to a point, but then when I read back over what I've written it seems petty and is not who I really am.  If I'm going to complain about something I'll keep it private so I can vent without regret.

I also want to take this opportunity to apologize to any people I may have offended, however I won't mention any names here.  The people I do not get along with probably know it already and will never be friends.  Not because they have differing opinions to me, that's natural after all, but because of their nature and the way they treat others.

Suffice to say, I have made a lot of friends through the TES modding community and some are still friends after all the years since Morrowind and then the Oblivion years.

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