Saturday 29 April 2006

Pic of the day: A cutie, isn't she? And right good with a bow, too.

Oblivion: Companion Gabrielle

Oblivion may be the greatest single-player role playing game ever, but it is very single-player indeed. There is a project by some fans trying to implement some multi-player support, but it doesn't seem to have come very far. But do not despair entirely! You can still get a sidekick. Or perhaps even become one, as happened to my latest character, Lila the Alchemist. There are at least two named female companions available for download to the PC, and one Elf Mage. The one I heard most great rumors about was Gabrielle Renee by Aridale, so I downloaded and installed the mod.

Gabrielle starts at level 2 and levels up by herself the same way as a player character does: By using her skills. (Oblivion does not use "experience points", you can level up without ever killing anybody if you have non-combat skills as your primary skills. Gabrielle does have mostly combat skills as primaries, but the important part in leveling up is using the skills, not the outcome of the fight.)

Since I use a mod that alters my leveling (AF leveling mod, which raises stats gradually over time as you use them rather than suddenly letting you choose which to raise when you level up), Gabrielle became confused. She reads the player statistics to determine her own leveling speed, but could not make sense of mine. I had to get help from the forum to change the script. Luckily this was quite simple to do, and she now levels every 10 skill-ups like most people do.

I first got Gabrielle for my sneaky Catboy, but she started like 15 levels below me so was not a very effective sidekick. She tended to spend a lot of time unconscious, which is not conductive to using her skills. Gabrielle cannot die, but if her health goes negative she fall unconscious for a while. She has a moderate permanent spell of regenerate health, so she will go from negative to full health in a few minutes. But still, catching up is quite a challenge under those circumstances. Luckily I was soon making my third character anyway, and this time I started with Gabrielle almost as soon as I was out of the tutorial sewers.

Well, Gabby rocks. Pretty soon she was the heroine and Lila was the sidekick. Lila is an alchemist, her primary skills are either business- oriented or purely defensive. For this reason, she is leveling fairly slowly in the rather violent world of the emperor-less Tamriel, although she does creep upward. Gabrielle is leveling faster, and her skills are more useful in combat anyway, so does most of the actual fighting. She also has a very high initiative. As soon as she senses danger, she springs into action using her bow and later, if pressed, her cutlass. You can supply her with better weapons and armor over time, even magic scrolls and yes, potions. So my character brews potions of shielding and healing, and Gabby uses them while fighting. For some reason she does not drink potions of Reflect Damage though, one of the most difficult and useful potions. Oh well. She still does quite a good job of it.

Since the enemies are picked based on the player's level and not the companion's, it can get a bit easy. No problem! The game comes with a built-in difficulty slider. If you start to feel that you never have any excitement, just drag it a little bit upward and watch the fur fly. Or the arrows, in this case, as Gabby will need to send off quite a bit more of them when the enemies are tougher.

You will receive a message when Gabrielle levels up, but you can also ask her about her stats and she will tell you both her skills, strengths and level ... even her progress towards the next level. Another thing you can do, as mentioned already, is give her stuff. And take stuff from her. You can allow her to pick up things on her own, or you can be her manager and just give her the stuff she needs. (I have a mod that increases the carrying capacity, as it is a real nuisance to have to run back and forth to sell for every few items; but it does not work on companions, so I have to be careful to not overload her.) You better carry around a double set of repair hammers as well (repair hammers break during use until you become a master). If Gabby does most of the fighting, her gear will wear down, and she will not tell you about it. You have to check her inventory from time to time and borrow stuff so you can fix it.

***

That's the dry details. What I have trouble conveying is the way she doubles the fun of the game. Having a fighting sidekick frees my character to roleplay a less adventurous character. In effect, Lila is the bumbling scientist sidekick to Gabby's heroic adventurer. But even if you prefer to play a more traditional hero, having a sidekick makes the game new and allows for a range of new tactics. Warmly recommended.

Gabrielle is NOT a romance mod, like the one I wrote about for Morrowind. Don't expect much emotional involvement. I believe she is subject to the topless mod you may have heard about, but I haven't actually tried. I suppose some lonely guys will develop a "special" attachment to Gabrielle which may make undressing her more meaningful than the average Internet porn. Then again, some guys are really sad, pathetic losers. Even more so than I, I mean. ^_^*