Oblivion:Gripes/Equipment

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This article provides Equipment gripes, as part of the Game Balance section of the Gripes article.

Morrowind featured a much better equipment system with a greater number of slots. Most importantly it allowed you to layer clothing. Equip an eight-piece armor set over your favorite shirt and pants and toss on a robe over it all. No problem. Try that on Oblivion and you'll find yourself in various states of unexpected nakedness. The next-generation of gaming is supposed to be a step forward. We should be enjoying all the benefits of the last game and then some. We should not only get to wear what we want but choose how we wear it (ala Saint's Row). Hell, we should be able to design it down to color and pattern.

The WZ Inventory mod gives you a Morrowind-like inventory window

It's a balance issue. It prevents you from wearing a cuirass, two pauldrons, two gauntlets, greaves, boots, a shirt, pants, two rings, an amulet, belt, and robe, all with +15 strength. I do like the customizable clothing idea though.

Yes, but Morrowind balanced it with a maximum enchantment. Cuirasses and Tower Shields had the highest enchantment values, while boots and gauntlets and pauldrons had weaker enchantment values. In Oblivion, all items can be enchanted with the same effects.

They should go back to the old system then. Not only did it allow for more freedom, customization, and realism for your character (full plate-mail should not show skin), but it kept the system in balance.

People should be able to enchant beggar clothes with the same amount of enchantment that you can for high priced clothing or Daedric armor if they want to, just because it cost more doesn't make it better and that was a gripe about Morrowind as well. The idea of one item being more enchant able then another because its fancier cost more or because it’s rare doesn’t really make any sense. Also like the first reply said it’s a balance issue and doing enchantments like they did in Oblivion didn’t make pure mages as gimped on enchantments like it did in Morrowind.

In the case of armor, the reason it holds more charge is because it is better made. It is not better because it is expensive, it is expensive because it is better.

In oblivion any pants a female character wears, other than the jail pants, magically turn into skirts, and any skirts a male character wears, magically turn into pants. That does not make any sense.

If skirts and trousers, tunics and blouses, boots and shoes, vests and bras and any other number of gender-specific clothes were made separately available, then the game would not be positively affected in any way, but twice as many objects would have to be coded. E.g. "You picked up the manly male-cuirass with your bristling abs and pecs engraved on the front." or "You picked up the slightly feminine female-cuirass with space for your breasts."

There is a positive impact on the game: immersion. I agree that it would require additional work and memory, though. I really shouldn't be able to put a plate cuirass stolen from a female wood elf marauder on my Orc barbarian: it just stretches credibility. Restricting the reuse of looted armor and clothing somewhat would also help slow down the rate at which my character can acquire every good item in the game. It's a minor point, but it would add some realism.

Some players want to see females in pants, or males in skirts. But it's not even just that, heavy greaves sometimes turn into a skirt that looks like it would be 8 inches above her knees, and a single kneepad, yeah... uh how is that going to protect anyone, exactly?

Exactly, that's why I prefer wearing armor as a male--it makes more sense. In reality, cup-like protrusions in the breastplate would be inconvenient and potentially harmful (f you fell on your front, the steel protrusions would crumple up and weaken the plate). Breasts are soft organs, so in reality they would be strapped down flat underneath the cuirass, allowing for a much flatter (though a little larger) breastplate. It's true that this is a fantasy game and that would not matter, but inaccurate armor always bothers me no matter where I see it. Armor was created to PROTECT your body, not make it look sexy. I'm pretty sure you could make a mod that makes female armor more accurate, but I don't have the tools and power to make one, and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to use it (PS3).

I'm not certain of the name, but I swear there's a mod that makes items gender specific. IE: If you loot a Steel Cuirass from a female marauder, you would need to take it to an armourer (or do it yourself, if you had the skill) to rework the metal in to a more gender-friendly form.

The best quality of armor and weapons becomes avaliable very quickly thus while not even 1/2 through the game my level 20 character has no stronger equipment to seek except for equipment with enchantments.

I don't know how many people have noticed but, I'm kinda pissed that they no longer have pole weapons (spears, Halbreds, and battle staffs) and crossbows. I just believe that many cool mods could come from these weapons, and I personally enjoyed stabbing people from 5 feet away.

"Why would one want to swing a staff? A mace hurts more. Or a sword. Can't shoot a fireball from a sword, though." -- M'aiq the Liar

spears would have been nice, the advantage to a spear is that you can keep your opponent at bay.

I rather liked one aspect of Daggerfall's shop system: you could try things on. You could test both their aesthetics and their stats on you. I'd love to see that function return to Elder Scrolls.

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