Save Games for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

WARNING: THERE ARE MINOR SPOILERS IN THIS TEXT FILE. NOTHING ABOUT QUESTS AS
SUCH, BUT I DO MENTION CERTAIN ITEMS AND EVENTS YOU MAY FIND LATER.

I played the Collector's Edition of the game bought right when the game was re-
leased, thus the save games were generated on the initial version 1.0.

Everything in the <My Documents>\My Games\ folder was zipped.

The character I created became a Redguard Knight named Jonce. After the initial
escape from the prison dungeon I fixed some of the colors in his face a little,
but other than that almost nothing else was tweaked.

The save games consist of the usual numbered collection, autosave and quicksave
but also three specifically named "Backup 1", "Backup 2" and "Backup 3" which I
named using the console. I used these games for intermediate backup saves while
playing, just in case something went bad. So if you load them as they are now,
you will only find some of the latest save positions in the entire archive. I
do encourage you to save on top of them as I did, however, as there are so many
things in the game that can go bad without you knowing about it right away (for
example getting the disease that turns you into a vampire).


Character

Name		Jonce
Race		Redguard
Class		Knight		One of the predefined classes
Birthsign	The Serpent	Seemed like a good idea at the time =(

Here are the the full list of attributes from when I first left the prison sew-
er, when I had completed the final guild quest line at level 16, and when I had
completed all daedric quests as well as most miscellaneous quests at level 23.
Virtually only exploration was left at that point. Note that the attributes for
the later levels are without any equipment (no increase from weapons or armor).

			Level 01	Level 16	Level 23
					
Overall:

Hours Played		1		106		127

Health			100		304		377
Magicka			60		78		90
Fatigue			175		283		325

Strength		55		78		100
Intelligence		30		39		45
Wisdom			30		58		63
Agility			40		49		56
Speed			40		60		80
Endurance		50		98		100
Personality		30		45		45
Luck			50		50		50

Major Skills:

Blade			40		82		100
Block			30		48		50
Blunt			40		50		60
Hand to Hand		30		37		40
Heavy Armor		36		81		105
Illusion		25		51		52
Speechcraft		25		43		46

Minor Skills:

Armorer			10		61		68
Athletics		20		68		74
Alchemy			5		17		17
Alteration		5		47		51
Conjuration		5		26		26
Destruction		9		46		47
Mysticism		5		9		12
Restoration		6		39		41
Acrobatics		6		42		46
Light Armor		10		13		13
Marksman		5		17		17
Mercantile		10		31		33
Security		7		79		82
Sneak			14		54		59

Accomplishments:

Days Passed		1		227		280
Active Quests		1		19		2
Quests Completed	1		128		166

Skill Increases		18		539		608
Training Sessions	0		36		56
Novice Skills		14		4		4
Apprentice Skills	7		9		7
Journeyman Skills	0		5		7
Expert Skills		0		3		1
Master Skills		0		0		2

Bounty			0		0   / 1500*	0   / 2500*
Fame			0		123 / 0		143 / 0
Infamy			0		29  / 128	29  / 129

Days Jailed		0		0		1
Items Stolen		0		1039		1154
Items Pickpocketed	0		11		11
Trespasses		0		0		0
Assaults		0		14		15
Murders			0		17		40
Horses Stolen		0		0		0
Largest Bounty		0		1500		2500

Creatures Killed	26		1077		1430
People Killed		0		380		473

Places Found		0		127		184

Locks Picked		5		300		354
Lockpicks Broken	3		66		66

Souls Trapped		0		141		220

Ingredients Eaten	3		3		3
Potions Made		0		22		22

Oblivion Gates Shut	0		9		9

Horses Owned		0		0		0
Houses Owned		0		1		3
Stores Invested In	0		0		0

Books Read		0		583		631
Skill Books Read	0		47		54
Artifacts Found		0		3		14

Hours Slept		0		97		152
Hours Waited		0		2385		2927

Days as a Vampire	0		0		0
Necks Bitten		0		0		0

Jokes Told		0		224		283
Diseases Contracted	0		3		3

Nirnroots Found		0		70		103

Factions:

Order of the Dragon	-		Champion	Champion
Fighters Guild		-		Master		Master
Mages Guild		-		Arch-Mage	Arch-Mage
Arena			-		Gr. Champion	Gr. Champion
Blades			-		Knight Br.	Knight Br.
Knights of the Thorn	-		Honorary K.	Honorary K.
Thieves Guild		-		Gray Fox	Gray Fox
Dark Brotherhood	-		Listener	Listener
K. of the White St.	-		-		Knight-Errand
Order of the V. Blood	-		-		Brother

So as you can see, I never tried to REALLY power-level this guy to hit superb
values right from the start. Although I did jump a little and use a few spells
to increase abilities, I never went crazy. (In fact, I often forgot to do this
as I played the game as it was supposed to be played.)

I'm not going to list the enormous amount of inventory items here. Open a save
game and have a look yourself. I can briefly mention, however, that I got hold
of the Azura's Star and the Skeleton Key relatively fast, and I gave Martin a
useless staff for his portal ritual. I also obtained and used the Umbra sword
when the character was about level 13.

The statistics above indicates that I never owned a horse. It's true that I
never bought one, but I did receive and use Shadowmere from Dark Brotherhood.

* = Values when wearing the Gray Cowl (used when doing DB quests).


The Invisible Man

Relatively early in the game, not long after gaining access to enchant panels
in the Arcane University, I enchanted a set of light weight clothes with loads
of 11% chameleon just to try out how it feels to stack beyond 100%. This set
is available from then on and in the rest of the save games. However, some of
the later parts were replaced with 20% items to reduce the amount needed to
get past 100%, while still being able to use other armor with other kinds of
neat enhancements. When experimenting with the chameleon set (always prefixed
with "Jonce's Chameleon") remember to take a look at the tab in the spell page
where you can see fortifications, to see if the stacked value of chameleon is
beyond 100%. Another hint is taking out your melee weapon. If it is completely
invisible (i.e. not even the "Predator"-effect) then you're good to go.

I must admit that I did make use of this chameleon set in some dungeons and in
certain quests to speed up the progress a little bit. Doing so comes with a
real big caveat - it's a complete game breaker! All sneak attacks are always
successful, and even if you don't kill the enemy right away, they never have a
clue who hit them. Also, most crimes are a guaranteed success (including lock-
picking and stealing from containers) - only pickpocketing might still fail.
You really are a superhero - or should I say villain - while wearing this set.
The good thing is that if you combine the chameleon set with the Gray Cowl,
you will never be bothered by the guards. Pretty handy for certain sitations.

NOTE: Some of the numbered save games were saved while wearing the chameleon
set. You may want to change this to make whatever is ahead more challenging.


Hotkeys

Naturally, the hotkeys were not set in stone right from the beginning, but in
the last two thirds of the game, I had them setup as follows:

	Hotkey		Function
			
	1		Melee weapon (Umbra in most cases)
	2		Bow
	3		Healing spell on self
	4		The Redguard's neat adrenaline power
	5		Fire spell on target
	6		A cheap protect spell to train myself
	7		Repair Hammer
	8		Azura's Star

I almost never used 1, 2 and 4. The ones I used the most were 7 (to repair my
equipment) and 8 (to recharge whatever Umbra captured).


Mods

I'm going to list the mods I used here, in case the save games somehow require
them to be present. (Which I doubt, but there you go.)

	Mod			Purpose
				
	Better Water		Makes the water clearer
	BTmod v2.20		Smaller font, bigger windows, better lists
	Oblivion Cats v0.2b	Cats wandering around the streets
	Color Map Mod v1.1	Colored world map instead of just brown
	LOD Textures		Improves the "soup" distance textures


Miscellaneous

 o  The way I played the game - did a few single quests to begin with and
    explored a little, but then decided relatively early that I wanted to
    get rid of all the main and guild quest lines. The single quests and
    further exploration was pretty much put on hold until that was accom-
    plished. The quest lines were completed in the following order:

	Quest line		Save game where completed
			
	1. Arena		Save 23
	2. Main Quest		Save 73
	3. Fighters Guild	Save 97
	4. Mages Guild		Save 110
	5. Thieves Guild	Save 133
	6. Dark Brotherhood	Save 153
	7. Daedric Quests	Save 229

    In the list of character attributes, you can see my statistics when I
    finished the last guild quest line (DB) at level 16 (Save 153).

 o  The first guild line I completed was the Arena. I completed the quest
    for the Gray Prince and got subsequent fortify training. In the end of
    the Arena rounds I killed the Gray Prince (no bounty) and was seen by
    the Dark Brotherhood. (I didn't continue their quests until level 16.)

 o  I had a lot of trouble with buttons not opening the doors they were
    supposed to in Ayleid dungeons. If you get the same problem, here are
    a few tips on how to deal with it. First, save and exit the game right
    to the Windows desktop. Restart the game and reload. Try pressing the
    button; often it works at this point. If it still doesn't work and you
    know what metal door the button is supposed to open then pull down the
    console (hit the key to the left of the '1' key) and type TCL. You can
    now fly right through the door. Remember to type TCL again (toggle).

 o  Right from the get go I was quite thorough when it came to reading all
    books I spotted that I didn't know. I got a lot of skill increase this
    way. Don't expect to find many books in the later save games that the
    character haven't already read.

 o  When visiting a fort, ruin or even a city, I often made a habit out of
    walking around it first - meticulously uncovering "Fog of War" so that
    the place was clear on the local map later. This can be helpful when
    trying to figure out if I have already visited a place in a given save
    game. Also, I tried to be thorough when uncovering the actual dungeons
    so if in doubt, take a peek inside and see if the dungeon is drawn on
    the map. If it is fully drawn, there is 99% chance that I have already
    checked out that dungeon from A to Z. (Bear in mind, however, that the
    dungeons in the game usually respawn their inhabitants and loot.)

 o  The first house I bought (fairly early too) was the one in Waterfront
    just outside the Imperial City. I used the left chest to hold stuff
    such as books, lockpicks, notes, etc. The skewed chest of drawers in
    the right corner was used for weapons, armor, soul gems, etc. For a
    long time I didn't store stuff anywhere else, except when I became an
    Arch-Mage for Mages Guild. Even so, I only put spell scrolls in one of
    the containers in his office, as a test to see if they would disappear
    later (which, unfortunately, they did). Much later, I finally bought
    the excellent manor in Skingrad and moved all items from the old house
    at Waterfront to this new manor. I only used containers in the first
    floor for storage, and they were used in the following way:

	o  Turn right; right chest of drawers	Rings and amulets
	o  Turn right; left chest of drawers	Soul gems and the like
	o  Turn right; writing table		Books and notes
	o  Turn left; cupboard			Armor and clothes
	o  Turn left: chest			Weapons of any kind
	o  Turn left; barrel			Miscellaneous stuff
	o  Turn left; distant cupboard		Potions and ingredients

    I also placed a few daggers, a sword and a book in the display cases
    found in the first floor. On the chest of drawers I put a varla stone
    and 1-2 welkynd stones to signify that this is the soul gem container.
    Likewise, I put two necklaces on the other chest of drawers. If you
    load "Save 183" you will find Jonce in the Skingrad manor, just after
    I moved everything from the Waterfront house. (Both mini quests were
    also completed at this point.)

 o  The biggest bummer when creating Jonce was choosing The Serpent as his
    birthsign. I don't think I really used its powers even once throughout
    the entire game. What a waste! =(

 o  Pretty much every single spell and enchantment I custom created myself
    was named "Jonce's <Item>" so that they would be grouped together.

 o  At least in the last half of the game I made a habit out of always
    selling health and magicka potions so that I never had more than 20 or
    later even 15 of these, to reduce weight. I also sold all weak potions
    and all poisons, almost without exceptions.

Have fun with the save games! =)

JCH, 29 April 2006
