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Oblivion Patch Causing Issues
The much anticipated patch for Oblivion is here, but it has come at a cost. 1up reports on complaints from users about lockups, lagging, and some curious technical problems. From the article: "Even though the patch cleans up a number of glitches quests, many are still upset because it doesn't solve their existing issues. If you've already run into and experienced a glitch quest, there's a good chance the patch will do nothing to fix it; the patch can't fix contaminated saves. Consequently, Bethesda employees have been recommending fans start new characters if they want to experience these quests."
I found another patch that is causing issues with my Oblivion gaming experience. I installed the Topless Females patch, but now I can't play the game without my pants feeling excessively tight :-( Is it wrong to be attracted to a topless, female, Orc barbarian who is trying to kill me? Oh, and those Khajiit women *froths at the mouth*
I have experienced a glitch quest and it actually caused me to stop playing the game, since I had spent an hour on it, then realized the quest was broken because I had done somehting out of order (accidentally) and now I can no longer complete the quest. It distressed me to the point that the game just sort of stopped being fun . . . the same way that it can happen if you play for an hour wihtout saving on TESIII Morrowind and then die, only to have to REDO your hour of play . . . which then becomes more like work than play. It is unfortunate that this patch cannot fix these types of glitches.
Has anyone else tried to help the Fisherman in Weye by killing enough slaughterfish for him, but accidentally already killed one of the slaughterfish in the lake in the quest area before you took on the quest? That is what happened to me and now when I get to the slaughterfish I already killed in the quest order, a dead fish is there (because I killed it), but I can't move on to the next slaughterfish location! Anyone know how to fix this?
"We apologize for the inconvenience, but we enjoy trying to get those of you who have been playing every waking moment a life. So go ahead and start anew getting bored with the quests you completed 2 weeks ago"
-Bethesda
What's the matter, James? No glib remark? No pithy comeback?
Look at their track record. Their games are always buggy. Daggerfall had more things broken at release than it did working. Why should the new game be any different?
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Is there a way to uninstall the patch on the 360 version?
Since I'm sure it's an auto-update (meaning I have no say in whether or not the thing gets downloaded and installed), I'm going to opt to play with my 360 not connected to my network. Anybody know if plugging it back in once my game is loaded will let me avoid the download and register my acheivements to my Xbox Live account?
"This is considered plagiarism."
An interesting, introspective analysis of my conundrum.
Also, does anyone else think it is unfair that the Redguards are forced to use separate water fountains and bathrooms within the Tamrielic Empire? I wish Emperor Uriel Septim would have done something about this prior to his assaniation!
The problem extends as for North-East as Morrowind in Vvardenfell . . . I commonly see Redguards forced to the back of the silt strider!
This is a problem with quests being uncompletable if you accidently do step 2 before step 1. Thats pretty much impossible to be caused by spyware.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Yes, this makes complete and total sense. Spyware makers definitely want to know what quests you're completing in order to direct their marketing to you, and make their software search ut Oblivion save games and files in order to gain the best information about your buying habits. The direct-to-mage advertising market is one of the biggest around, ya know.
Did I forget the sarcasm tags again?
Be thankful that you've had no problems with the game. Unfortunately, a lot of people do have problems with it, and the patch meant to fix it. Don't dismiss problems simply because you're not experiencing them.
This is, unfortunately, the exact reason why I haven't gotten into Oblivion yet. I loved Morrowind, but only got it after they released the extremely-patched super edition with the two expansions built in. That's the version of the game I'm waiting for before I step foot into Oblivion, and this patch-snafu is exactly why. I could see it coming a mile away, and that's sad.
Most highly open-ended games are like this. Think of how difficult it would be to play test a game like Oblivion versus a typical FPS.
Costs - keep low to increase profits and attract customers... Time to market - keep low to reach the market before competitors do.. Quality - ....never mind.....
...what matters is what you like, not what you are like...
I haven't got sympathy for anyone on Slashdot of all places, that wants to complain about a broken quest. Particularly anyone that runs Linux. One of the great strengths of Oblivion, and Morrowind before it, is how far under the hood you can get. Got a broken quest? Then get in the editor and fix it. That should actually be *fun* for most of the people here. I've spent about a month so far not actually playing the game. I've been immersed in the editor, having just as much fun (while admittedly missing the beautiful scenery - the other reason I bought this game), and Morrowind was the same way for me. Either game would be less fun if I couldn't change it up and mold it to my liking. Your mileage may vary, but if you come in here flashing geek creds you can't stop to complain that you need to fix your game. Have FUN fixing it, and improving on it, that's what we do, isn't it?
Daggerfalls weren't all quest bugs (mobs and PCs walking through solid objects, lots of crashes, corrupted save files, etc). Those things are avoidable.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
The only issue i've experienced so far... although i've stopped playing because of it after closing the first oblivion gate, is severe lagging in indoor areas and in towns. Outdoors in the wilds the game looks and runs great, but i go into a room (not a cave, no issues in dungeons and caves), and it lags to all hell. This is the opposite of what it should be, right? I've tried turning down all the settings, but nothing fixes it, even though it shouldnt be an issue because it runs great in large areas. Anybody else heard of or experienced anything like this?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Bethesda has indeed fooled me twice. I purchased both Daggerfall and Morrowind right after their release, and it took several long months to have each game patched enough to be fully enjoyable. Sorry, but unless you are brand new to the Elder Scrolls series, I have no sympathy for you if you purchased Oblivion soon after its release, a few months after it's been truly completed.
If you have a problem with something like killing a creature before you *find out* that the creature is quest related, go into console(~key) then type "help" and it will show you a list of commands. The command to use in this case would be "spawn(creature_id)" Problem solved, resume saving Tamriel, the end.
What a bunch of complainers...
I have logged around 90 hours so far in this game... and it is unbelievable. I haven't hit anything that I have noticed as a bug... but I'm also an extremely careful player (hence the 90 hours).
What other game out there gives you _SO MUCH_ with so few problems? In such a huge game like this there are bound to be some issues. Have a couple of minor glitches in a couple of side quest and get castrated even though there are _hundreds_ of quests with no problems.
Good god people... get over it!
Man... people just don't appreciate things. You have to take the good with the bad. I'll take an incredible game with a couple of coding flaws in it over another FPS on rails game with no bugs anyday.... but I guess that's just me.
Damn,
Friedmud
Think of how difficult it would be to play test a game like Oblivion versus a typical FPS.
It can be avoided.
I'm serious.
The problem is that game companies are some of the most behind in state-of-the-art testing. I'm not talking about QA process, either. I'm talking about Model Checking. It's the kind of thing military contractors do with their code to make sure missiles never accidentally blow up in the wrong spot.
(It was the topic of an article on Slashdot a few weeks ago - which, I'm sorry to report, nobody here actually understood, thinking it was about automatic code generation. Talk about not RTFAing.)
Here's how it works: you model your quests and quest variables as finite state automata. (Remember discrete math?) You use a very expressive language for this, which makes it easy to read. A character, say, killing a certain fish would change a boolean quest variable. Then you define properties that your FSM should have, so that if a quest becomes unsolvable, one or more properties fails. Throw it at a model checking system and in a few minutes, it tells you whether a quest can be made unsolvable and how to get into that state.
It's extremely simple with quests, most of which are totally independent, leading to a relatively small global quest FSM.
Someone competent in Model Checking could add a new quest to the system and check it in less than two hours.
I got my Linux laptop at System76.
This kind of approach does not scale well (state space explosion), and in any case, even if you abstract the game states enough that model-checking is tractable, one is checking the model, not the implementation.
OK, it may still be worthwhile to perform such model checking (errors may and probably will be found as a result), but I do not know that the time/money aspect is worth it.
However, the good news is that people are continuing to research how to more closely and automatically link specifications and models to software implementation, others are researching better models and languages, still others are investigating debugging and testing tools, model checking or otherwise.
I haven't figured out yet which of these to concentrate on for my own PhD thesis (I'm not particularly happy with any of them as regards their application to "the real world" - i.e. cost-run fast software development), but its been interesting investigating all of them.
Haven't got playing Oblivion or any other computer games in two weeks though - argh!
-- *~()____) This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds...
I'm afraid that my save has been screwed over. After triggering a quest, the "monsters nearby" bit was apparently set, so I can no longer sleep, wait, or fast travel. I figured it was because I was in the general area of the quest, so I went to the nearest town. Whoops, looks like there's some monsters in the inn, so no sleepy time for you, Mr. On-the-verge-of-leveling. Hopefully I can find a workaround.
Bosmer discrimination is real though. No one CHOOSES to be born Wood Elf.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
You really should do step 3 (Profit!) first. That way the first two steps will be meaningless.
I fell through the floor so many times in Daggerfall (ha! fall!) that I haven't touched the TES series since.