Obscuros Oblivion Overhaul - how much does it change the game?

[furiousfred]

Does this mod change vanilla Oblivion too much? I haven't played the game yet but didn't like the mob leveling aspect, just worried that the mod changes the game too much elsewhere that it wouldn't match up with the story otherwise.

[Bill Ramey]

I've only played a bit of OOO, but the main effect I noticed is that you don't know what's going to be in a cave or fortress--it may have creatures way beyond your current level. Thus you have to get to know the world a bit differently than when the world scales with you. I don't know how this impacts the story lines.

[Silvernis]

Bump. Any other input from OOO users? The Skyrim announcement got me back on an Oblivion kick, and I'd like to revitalize the game with something like the Oscuro overhaul, if it's worth the effort...?

[FengZ]

Hmm, I recommend you skip it for your first play through. OOO makes the game "hardcore" and some players might not like it. The most noticeable change is the AI difficulty. The entire world is very dangerous and you'll die often (especially if you have never played and don't know the locations).

For some, this is fun. For me, I had fun for a few days, and then the game just became torturous. It took forever to clear a cave (like 1 to 2 hours of fighting, running away, healing, back to fighting), so Oblivion became a choir instead. The balance between "fun" and "work" was hard to justify (but again, a lot of people like it, so it depends on what type of player you are).

All that said, the vanilla AI is not great either since they level up with you. To get around this, install Francisco's Creature and Item level mod. This will change stop their auto-leveling and make the game way more fun.

And if you do install it, OOO does not change any of the story. It's mainly a stat mod.

[Silvernis]

Good info, thanks.