Kinda liked Oblivion but thought it was severely flawed? Try Nehrim

[greed]

Okay first off, Nehrim is a German made mod for The Elder Scrolls Oblivion by a group known as SureAI that some people may already be familiar with. It's also a big mod. A total conversion on a truly absurd scale, but it still needs Oblivion. When I say absurd I mean it reworks almost every game mechanic to some degree, has an entirely different world, dozens of new enemies, vast amounts of new gear, a completely overhauled magic system, a nerfed enchanting system, it's own soundtrack(some of which is quite catchy, one of the combat themes is this pretty rocking electric guitar deal that had me throw up the horns when I killed the kobold I was fighting) has it's own 3D cinematics at opening and it has full professional VA done by a larger cast than Bethesda hired. It's good quality VA from what I (who doesn't speak a word of German outside of a few profanities) can tell too, with a wide range of voices(unlike Oblivion) and good emotions(unlike Oblivion).

The shitty VA done by a far too tiny cast is not the only problem Nehrim fixes. Those annoying scaled levels that made exploration useless and levelling up counter intuitively a bad idea? Gone. Every area has a set level range, the overworld areas actually display the range for you, the dungeons give no warning though. Basically after a short prologue where you are on rails until you reach the monastary it's entirely possible to wander off and get horribly murdered by end games mobs. Or find high level loot if you're good/lucky enough. Every dungeon I've hit has been interesting, unique, often intense and atmospheric, or short and sweet enough that I didn't get bored (there's a number of dungeons that can be best described as hermit caves which are small, have a couple of monsters, some minor loot but most importantly a bed to recoup health and pass time, these are very helpful if you're trapped outside at night (enemies are stronger and more aggresive at night and it's harder to see) and can't kill enough enemies outside to safely wait). I just randomly explored some old castle full of demons and cultists and found a demonic gate at the bottom where a summoner was calling something before I interrupted and killed him. There's a wide variety of new enemies(with smarter more vicious AI than Oblivions) ranging from simple reskins and/or resizes of Oblivion monsters (like the Spider Spriggans, Spider Daedra models with the skin of dryads or the homage to Gothic, the Black Trolls seen in the prologue) to entirely new models.

Levelling is much more sensible, using an experience system, the annoying attribute mdoifer system remains but there are ways (cheats/mods) around it and SureAI reworked the mechanics so attributes are far far less important than skills and gear. There's alos just a wide variety ofnew immersive stuff added like cooking and forging. Listing everything change would take forever so I'll just stick to the big ones and let whoever's interested find the smaller details themselves(or by looking at the site or forum).

Magic is better, the gear is better(exploration means there is a point to tackling the harder dungeons to get better loot too), there's Diabloesque armour sets that get bonuses the more pieces you equip to encourage collecting and to provide a good reason to not make your character msimathced and ridiculous. The world is not just plain old boring European forest like Oblvion either, there's deserts, sunny tropical coasts, cold wintery mountains and areas where magic is leaking into the world and distorting reality.






Seriously look at that shit.

Basically if you liked or would have liked Oblivion and wished it was more like Morrowind or the good Gothic games, then Nehrim is probably just the game for you as long as subs don't bother you.

Here's the download site , it's around 1.6gigs (the Torrent was really fast when I did it, consistently around 1Mbps which is rare here in Aus).

I found installation pretty easy, it needs an updated Oblivion to work and installs in it's own directory, allowing you to switch between it and Oblivion without messing with either's mod loading order (Nehrim is enough of a complete overhaul that almost no Oblivion mods work with it, when you fire up it's launcher you can't have any of them activated, nor any of the Oblivion or Shivering Isles main files). I've heard installing if you have a Steam version of Oblivion is a bit trickeir but very possible, should be easyto find help on the English section of the official forums here. Meister and IG and other German speaking forumites can use the much larger and more active German section here (huh support is support in German, never knew that).

[Azisien]

Any incompatibility with Oblivion running through Steam?

[Pip Boy]

If the dialog is all in German, do they provide language options for us English speaking people? Is there perhaps an English dub or sub available in the game's options?

[greed]

Originally Posted by Azisien

Any incompatibility with Oblivion running through Steam?

Steam works but I've heard it's trickier, hadn't looked into it too much. Here's the installation instructions from the readme.

Originally Posted by Readme

************************************************** **
Installation (if you don’t have Oblivion by Steam)
************************************************** **

· Nehrim is not a normal mod and is not installed as you normally install mods. Our
Installer does all the work for you, but we would like to explain what it actually does.
· Since Nehrim is a total conversion, it would not be advisable to install the mod directly into
the Oblivion installation folder – because in doing so there is simply too much data that will
be overwritten.
· Instead the installer automatically locates your Oblivion directory and copies out all the
needed information to play Nehrim into the Nehrim folder. This is a location on your hard
drive selectable by you.
WARNING: If you are using Windows Vista or 7, then please do not install Nehrim into one of
the Program Folders (Program, Program Files, Program(x86), Program Files (x86)). Because
of the Windows security checks this can cause problems.
· Now you have two Oblivions installed, but in separate folders. The advantage of this is that
at any time you can switch between your regular Oblivion game and Nehrim.



Installation (if you have Oblivion by Steam)
· Steam is a little rigid concerning its copy protection. Unfortunately, due to that feature you
can't have Nehrim and Oblivion installed separately, so you will have to overwrite Oblivion
with your Nehrim installation.
· First create a copy of your Oblivion folder as a backup. You can find this in the folder
Steam/SteamApps/common.
· Now you can execute the Nehrim installer, choosing any place on your harddrive for
installation.
WARNING: If you are using Windows Vista or 7, then please do not install Nehrim into one of
the Program Folders (Program, Program Files, Program(x86), Program Files (x86)). Because
of the Windows security checks this can cause problems.
· When the installation is complete, go to the folder where you have installed Nehrim. Copy
and paste ALL of it into your Oblivion folder (Steam/SteamApps\common).
Starting Nehrim (if you don’t have Oblivion by Steam)
· After the installation is complete you will find a “Nehrim – At Fate's Edge” icon on your
desktop. This is a system launcher developed by SureAI that works like the already known
Oblivion Launcher but with a few additional features. Still DO NOT click “Play” yet!
Because just as you do with other mods, you must first activate the Nehrim files.
· Therefore click on “Data Files” and uncheck ALL game files that you have activated. To
play Nehrim now enable “Nehrim.esm” and “NehrimData.esp”. NOTHING ELSE! All
files that have anything to do with Oblivion must be disabled or the game will crash.
· Now you can click the “Play” button. You can check to see if there is an update for Nehrim
by using the Nehrim Launcher (you need only to communicate with the update server by
clicking on the arrow next to the “Update” button and then activate the check box). Then
using the link provided, you can download the update or let the launcher download it
automatically.



************************************************** **
Starting Nehrim (if you have Oblivion by Steam)
************************************************** **

· Unfortunately, you cannot use the Launcher provided by SureAI with Steam to start Nehrim.
Therefore, click as usual on the Oblivion start icon. Nevertheless, DO NOT click “Play”
yet! Just as you do with other mods you must first activate the Nehrim files.
· Therefore click on “Data Files” and uncheck ALL game files that you have activated. To
play Nehrim now enable “Nehrim.esm” and “NehrimData.esp”. NOTHING ELSE! All
files that have anything to do with Oblivion must be disabled or the game will crash.
· Now you can click the “Play” button. You can check to see if there is an update for Nehrim
by using the Nehrim Launcher (you need only to communicate with the update server by
clicking on the arrow next to the “Update” button and then activate the check box). Then
using the link provided, you can download the update or let the launcher download it
automatically.

Basically Steam's DRM means you can't have the separate install and have to overwrite Oblivion with with Nehrim. You can back up Oblivion though for switching later.

Originally Posted by Pip Boy

If the dialog is all in German, do they provide language options for us English speaking people? Is there perhaps an English dub or sub available in the game's options?

The download page I provided was for the English subbed verison, all the dialogue and UI is translated, some of the books aren't, VA is still German.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

Okay, you told me about this sweet mod in the chat several times and I finally finished that other game I was playingcan't be assed to only be pitted against tough to kill endgame enemies that require ten thousand bullets to kill or one charged shot with a specific weapon that can only hold one such shot. Fuck you Hunters and Fuck you Striders. so I'll give this a try. First I'll have to get a PC version of Oblivion, which shouldn't be too hard. Since... well. Here's a little fun fact. Oblivion: €30... Oblivion bundled with BioShock (another game I only have the X360 version of): €10

So yes, that seems fair.

[Grimpond]

tweaking settings. favorite start screen ever though. The music really does it for me

[CABAL49]

I was wanting to reinstall Oblivion and I am a German Language Major. This is perfect for me !

[Magus]

My friend who was a massive Morrowind fan but felt let down by Oblivion should love this (if he doesn't already know about it)

[Krylo]

So it's like Oscuro's except German and better?

[greed]

Pretty much, though it wholesale changes the game's setting. No Imperium, Dunmer or whatever.