Good to know flint...about the armor thingy, just moments ago (before the @#$@#$ing game crashed for the 80th time) I decided to ignore that skill. Now I won't :D

If you don't have a high performance rig, click escape, go into options, video and start ratcheting down on what all is being rendered (for instance, the grass distance fader, turn it all the way down to zero and your computer won't have to render all that "ground clutter" waving in the breeze everywhere). Funny thing is, this game came out a couple of years ago, but it's still crashing mid-range systems with it's intricate visuals!

P.S. another benefit to losing all that grass is you can see things on the ground easier (alchemy ingredients, etc.)

Eh, it's not my computer, it's because I'm on the Kvatch quest...other NPCs make it do bad things. I had to go all the way to 640x480 res to complete the one farmboy quest. Nyerrr.

Edit: I'm glad you're playing this game so much better than me, it makes life easier :D

Edit Edit: It also keeps making my arrows dissapear mid-fight, I'm trying to find info on it online. Seems to be a glitch

I study things: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Oblivion . . . gotta love the internet

Is it possible you have the fader for rendering yourself turned down farther than you can shoot an arrow?
If not that, there are tons of recommended patches and bug fixes on the Elder Scrolls wiki linked to above.

I can't believe you're even doing the main quest. I'm just exploring the countryside to see what's out there.

:D I've been browsing gameFAQs on it...to learn how to use the skills and such...but I'm also enjoying just finding stuff out by playing with it since that's the whole reason I wanted a new game anyway, the last few RPGs I've played have been more or less "DO IT ONE OF THESE 5 WAYS OR YOU CAN'T COMPLETE THE GAME CAUSE YOUR SKILLZ ARE TOOO SUCKIFIED" you can't just figure that crap out on your own, unless you want to make 8000 characters

I bought the Game of the Year Edition (with the expansion packs) I'm installing those now since on the oblivion website it's too confusing to figure out which of them will break your game if they are/aren't installed for this edition

I'm hoping later patches are bundled into these expansions, but you never know

I'm running the Game of the Year edition with no patches and having no problems. I've only loaded disc one.

The community has created many, many "unofficial" patches and mods. But I see no reason to get into that...

How far are you along the main storyline?

I took the amulet to Jaufree, and he let me get the free stuff in his chest and the free horse. I took all the stuff from the chest sold it; now I'm using the chest as "safe" container (it never resets). That's it. Occasionally he starts nagging me about going to look for Martin.

I read if you don't do the Kvatch quest very near the beginning, you better wait until you are very powerful. The reason is that the NPCs don't level, but the enemies do. . . . So once I get invincible I'll go do the Kvatch thing (sorry about that, NPCs, you're not gonna make it).

Hee...yes I read that last night, and don't worry, I've killed all but the invincible NPC already.

Also, I missed out on a free horse twice now, which is a bummer.

Just go back to the Weynon Priory and talk to people until the guy offers you the horse. If you want a horse.

I don't use mine.

I run everywhere.

"Frequent Crashing possibly due to connected HP printer
A program related to HP printers may cause Oblivion to crash. Before running Oblivion: Press Ctr-Alt-Del to bring up the task manager. Go to the Processes Tab. Right click on any process starting with the letters HP and select End. Running Oblivion at this point may have this issue corrected. Note: The PC will need to be restarted to reinitialize printing or imaging."

Mebbe this is why, Oblivion doesn't like HP printers.

I have a question.

does this game charge you a fee to play on their servers each month?

Sorry I'm late to this thread. Try this site for pointers.