The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

[DaleLewill]

Quite impressive glitch!  

[radol]

I posted some stuff in the console thread about what I've done so far.

Here are the links to the videos so far:

http://files.filefront.com/Oblivion_segment1avi/;4938679;;/fileinfo.html

http://files.filefront.com/Oblivion_segment2avi/;4938749;;/fileinfo.html

Preety nice, but i see many improvments

The biggest is character, personaly i think you should choose redguard-steed-scout.

When still in cell, jump and run around like crazy, you should be able to increase your acrobatics a little.

Do not take that shortsword. If you really need a weapon take katana from ground.

When fast travel enter journal by keybord, then click "map" button in active quest card. Usefull when you need to scroll whole map.

I think bunny hoping is not the best. Try to move like in morrowind runs (w+a or w+d), and bunnyhop sometimes. The best will be that w/s+block+e move, but 50 acrobatics...

Ok i think its all. I tried on my own beat your segment 1 time, but with my duron 1.2ghz, 512 ram and r9500 its simply impossible. With normal difficulty it was about 18:05 (with loooong loading screens, looow fps and game freezes). But with good pc...

Ohh, and sorry for my english

[Benito]

I've clocked up many hours just playing through Oblivion normally, but it might be time for me to start thinking about speed running this, the next Elder Scroll... Looks like there's a lot more interest in speed running Oblivion than Morrowind.

When I started out speed running Morrowind, I first needed to find the important magic items. I think I'll spend some time doing to Oblivion what I did with Morrowind, i.e. tearing apart the Oblivion data files and importing useful data and stats into a MySQL database to make item and enchantment searching possible.

Character choice is going to be important, but it appears Speed is less of an issue compared to what it was in Morrowind (when things were painfully slow, and picking an 85 speed character was a real bonus). If certain quests do require a certain level to progress then picking a character that can level up quickly is going to be important, so choosing the right major skills will aid the run.

However you need to have a run in mind in order to pick the right character for it. While Knu and I were battling it out, we went through several different choices of character, and it wasn't necessarily one whose stats were the best at face value. Only time and testing will tell which will win outright.

Anyone willing to place any bets how long the final run will be? I started off thinking Morrowind would be around 3 hours long, so I'll go for that for Oblivion too

Anyway, those segments of Lloyd1337 are still downloading so I'll comment on them later...

Edit:
BTW, has anyone worked out which Daedric shrine quest is the quickest to complete yet? The Main Quest suggested, but didn't enforce, Azura's shrine, but I don't fancy going up against those vampires again. Sanguine's shrine was quite hilarious and lends itself to fast travel. Malacath could be done pretty quick if you're good at pickpocketing the keys from the guards.

[Bevilr]

Have you guys decided for certain on the umbra issue? Obviously getting the the stuff off him is hugely heavy, but benificial.

[Allantois]

I think the best way to go about it is by getting the saff from rugers staff's in the imperial city as quickly as possible. The 33 shock/fire/lightning damage is insane.  This can be completed quickly by duping stuff and selilng it to vendors for the 6000 gold or using the dorian glitch for the required money.
(which is kind of hard to do at hard difficulties because he likes to run and get guards so you need to kill him quick... but how?) all of this would be good to do when visiting the imperial city for the books of the mythic dawn.

Before people complain about the lack of charges, if you dupe the staff and use 2 of them, and bind the staff to a hotkey, when you are getting low on charges, hit the hotkey twice and wala, fully charged staff... infinite uses.

there are only 2 daedric shrines which are available for low levels.. shegogarath and azura. Both of them you need to be level 2 so leveling once is important. Shegogarath requires some weird stuff (lettuce, lesser soul gem, yarn) which would take unnecesary time to collect. All you need for azuras shrine is some glow dust and there are wisps right next to the shrine (which is not too far from other parts of the main quest).

After leveling once for the shrine, you can complete the main quest on level 2.  


That trick in the sewers i posted earlier is outdated, by the way. Once you figure out you need to go to the sewers if you just jet on down there the "guide" will find you at the end of the sewers so you can skip the whole following him thing.


also, you can increase your acrobatics level around 4 times and your athletics level once before you even leave the imperial sewers, so majoring those skills and you can be half way to the 2nd level before you see the sun. It might be good to find a trainer on the way of the main quest before the shrine and major in the skill he teaches also. In initial run throughs I got 90% to level 2 by the time I needed the artifact, but still needed to waste 5 minutes jumping around before I got the acrobatics high enough for a level.

[Benito]

Has anyone actually tried "obtaining" the amulet off Mankar Camoran before he steps into the portal? If so, would be an insane shortcut, but no doubt prevented for some reason, but it would be nice to think there was more than one path on the MQ.

If its got to be level 2 then Azura's got to be done. Having reviewed the other quests it is almost certainly the quickest. Can the rest of the game be done while suffering from Vampirism? Would be a nice bonus to stats, minus the whole light sensitivity thang.

Rather than waste time jumping to level up, can any of the other artifacts be obtained first, e.g. the Great Welkynd Stone, thereby utilising the time more efficiently? There might keys on doors preventing that, but would be worth investigating. Anything that can be done out of sequence should be considered.

Or should you pick a character with very low acrobatics (or other) major skill that you can level up more quickly in.

Does the forthcoming patch prevent item duplication? Wouldn't like to rely on it for completion personally.

If only it were possible to Chameleon to 100% at low levels. Having infinite 6x sneak attacks makes combat short-lived

[Allantois]

I tried getting the amulet early and was not succesful. He is wearing it and it doesnt show up on the pickpocket screen. He does not die because he is a "crowned" quest character. As soon as you start attacking him he opens the portal and leaves.

I also tried entering that cave before the quest was given to me but the door to the M. D. headquarters is locked.

Even if the dupe trick is fixed in a patch, it was available in an official release of the game, so someone could use it in a speed run. If it is fixed, there will have to be separate categories, I guess.

[Ikanaki]

A couple of comments:

1)  Sounds like getting levelled up once is going to be enough of a pain, but if it were at all possible to level up to five, Namira's Daedric quest goes really fast.  Much faster than either Sheogorath's or Azura's; all you need are a few cheap wines to lower your personality score (cost 5 gold or so, as I recall, and available at most/all inns... or you can just steal them as they are all over the place).  Then, after you activate the shrine (conveniently located near Bruma), it is about a one minute run to a certain ruin, then cast a special spell on four characters.  Nothing in there is dangerous, either.  Then just run back and activate the shrine again; probably takes four or five minutes at most. The other level 5 Daedric quest, Mephala's, takes much longer, and I am sure anything above level 5 is going to take too much levelling.

Since it probably is improbable to do Namira's quest, you have to choose either Sheogorath or Azura.  Sheogorath's offering is not all that hard to get; you can find all three in abundance if you know the right places (Luther Broad's boarding house has lettuce all over the place, yarn can be found in lots of the crates littering the world, and joining the Mages' Guild means you can "borrow" lots of Lesser Soul Gems... or you can just steal them and not join the guild).  Then comes the quest itself, which is very simple and requires no combat prowess (or any sort of prowess, really, except possibly Sneak), but takes a good while no matter what you do because of a bunch of scripted events.

Azura's quest, on the other hand, can be beaten really quickly... if you can take on five fairly strong vampires with little or no resting.  I doubt the runner will have much in terms of combat skills or arms and armor, but if you can take them on, then that is definitely going to be the better choice.  Decisions, decisions...

2)  Bevilr:  although I have not obtained it on my current file (so I cannot check), I believe the sword Umbra is weightless due to being a quest item (for Clavicus Vile's Daedric quest).  Even if it is not, I doubt the runner will be carrying enough stuff to make carrying it impossible.

A quick question:  is killing the King of Miscarcand necessary?  I do not remember if he carried a required key or something.

[Pweisger]

For this speedrun, I would suggest any of the following characters:

Orc Warrior:
Specialization - Combat
Class Attributes - Strength and Endurance
Race Bonuses - Berserk, Resist Magicka
Birthsign - Warrior (+10 Strength and Endurance)
Skills: Heavy Armor, Block, Armorer, Blade, Restoration, Destruction, Alchemy

Berserk will do wonders on tough bosses, and Resist Magicka will help with the fact that you are speedrunning through the game and might not be able to get magic resistant items. The Restoration will save you time/money stocking up on health potions, and Destruction will deal with Ghosts or weaken tougher enemies. Other than that, really good for up close whoop ass, or he could run right past enemies and let damage absorb. The alchemy aspect could be used if you could buy ingredients and make quick potions to help, but that Skill could be replaced with anything, I really don't know what to put as the last skill, maybe Blunt, although having both Blade and Blunt, I don't know. Armorer would save you trips back to town for repairs. Maybe Sneak could be an effective final skill, but I don't know how that works with speed.

High Elf Battlemage:
Specialization - Magic
Attributes - Intelligence/Willpower
Race Bonus - Fortified Magicka, Weak to Fire/Frost/Shock, Resist Disease.
Birthsign - Lady (+10 Willpower/Endurance)
Skills - Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion, Mysticism, Blade, Alchemy

I like this setup because he can do several things. He already has pretty high skills due to his specialization AND his race bonuses. He can Bound weapons and armor, conjure support, great spellcaster, and he can use blade while he's busy rebuilding magicka. I think he could go faster than the Orc, but I worry about his durability. Oh, and as for Alchemy, I don't know, I just threw that one in there.

Wood Elf Assassin:
Specialization - Stealth
Class Attributes - Agility/Speed
Race Bonuses - Command Creature, Resist Disease
Birthsign - Thief (+10 Agility/Speed/Luck) OR Shadow (Invisible 60 Seconds)
Skills: Marksman, Sneak, Light Armor, Illusion, Conjuration, Blade, Acrobatics.

Now that I think about it, this setup might get you through the game the fastest, but I'll be damned if he will be able to overthrow the tough bosses. Illusion, Sneak, and the Shadow birthsign, would make it easy to surpass enemies and get a fast early game. Conjuration/Command creature could give you an ally for distraction while you take them out with a bow. Acrobatics I threw in there for speed purposes, but again, the seventh skill is a grab bag, really.

I pretty much gave you options for a Fighter, Mage, and Thief. I think all of these could be potentially useful, but I have no idea which would be the best. The fighter would outlast the other two, but might be slow as hell. The mage is pretty strong, but I worry about his overall health. The Thief would be the fastest, but I don't know his effectiveness as he nears the endgame. These are just suggestions, and there are obvious improvements. But I hope you use it as a stepping stone to a great potential character. Good luck with this, and I am looking forward to it. I would run it myself, but I have to upgrade my PC first.

[Allantois]

Rather than waste time jumping to level up, can any of the other artifacts be obtained first, e.g. the Great Welkynd Stone, thereby utilising the time more efficiently? There might keys on doors preventing that, but would be worth investigating. Anything that can be done out of sequence should be considered

the great welkyd stone is not an artifact. I'm pretty sure the only ones that martin will accept are the 15 which come from the shrines. And it doesnt help having already completed a shrine quest (don't think this is even possible) if the daedra god won't talk to you so you can get the artifact.

[Benito]

Er slight misunderstanding, Martin requires:

1) A daedric artifact (from a shrine quest)
2) The armour (or blood even) of Tiber Septim
3) The Great Welkynd Stone
4) The Great Sigil Stone

I've just read on UESP that the Great Welkynd Stone can be obtained at any time. So if you're stuck for something to do, this could be done out of sequence of the rest of the quests, thereby allowing you time to level up before tackling the vampires. Not sure how tough the liches will be in that dungeon though...

I think the second and fourth items are pretty much linear in the plot, limited by keys on doors and great gates opening.

Has anyone confirmed that the shrine quest have minimum level requirements rather than recommendations?

[Benito]

If you want to level up quickly, you need conjuration. Summoning skeletons to act as target practice allows lots of the dead time to be used effectively, e.g. the speech at Cloud Ruler temple, Baurus casual stroll in the sewers. Not only will the conjuration skill itself level up as you summon everywhere, but whatever method of attack you choose will also (e.g. destruction, blade etc).

I hit level 2 before leaving Cloud Ruler temple (used a bed there too). Still died a horrible death trying to storm the Mehrunes Shrine, but the summoned skeleton provided a suitable distraction from all the flak directed at me. Remind me not to experiment with the Blunt weapon skill again...

[Lloyd1337]

All of the Daedric quests have a certain level requirement. You will be unable to do the quest if you do not meet the requirement.

The lowest requirement is Azura, at level 2.

[Bevilr]

I know Umbra is weigthless making it hugely benificial, plus, if you get it before the mission where they take all your stuff, and he enters the portal to his world, it doesn't get taken from your inventory, and you can use it to get your stuff back if you want.

[Allantois]

I think the way to play the mythic dawn part is to just kill the guy for the key and charge in there, grab the book and haul ass out.

BTW benito... are you doing this with the slide all the way to the right or what?