The Official Shivering Isles Thread

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beanman101283

2[H]4U
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I picked this up tonight at Best Buy and have started making my way through the new realm. So far i'm having fun, though i haven't gotten too far. You start out in the Fringe area of the realm and have to defeat the Gatekeeper to get the keys to enter the main realm. You have two different choices for how to kill him, but like all Oblivion boss battles, it's pretty anticlimatic if you're a high level character. There's one ruin in this area with some creatures that put up much more of a fight, so be prepared.

There are only a handful of people wandering the Fringe, but you can immediately tell that the writing for these characters is better than 99% of the people wandering around in Cyrodil. These people are... i'd say only slightly nutty. But they're definitely more entertaining to talk to than anyone else in the main game. :D

I've just started wandering through the Mania section. The colors are ridiculously bright, and the creatures in the realm are a sight to behold. So far just about every creature i've encountered uses magic or poison to wear you down while they're hacking away at you. They seem to be just as powerful, or slightly more powerful, than the Daedra in Mehrunes Dagon's realm.

For those of you who played Morrowind, i did come across the Fork of Horipilation. :D I picked it up right away, though i'm sure it's just as useless as always.

I did have an issue with the Natural Environment mod. The weather effects were already being kind of wierd after i installed the 1.2 patch, but i hadn't got around to disabling it yet. Well, while i was talking to one of the NPCs, the weather started rapidly cycling between sunlight, snow, and rain. Once i disabled the Natural Weather part, i realized that the sky in the Isles had been completely replaced by the mod. It's actually a green, starry kind of sky. So disable Natural Weather until it's updated.

And finally, my Sneak skill has been at 100 for some time now, and i'm wearing armor that boosts it to 105. Well for some reason i was sneaking through the ruin and my sneak skill increased and counted towards leveling up since it's one of my main skills. I don't know if this is a bug or some special feature of the new realm.

Anyway, this will definitely keep me entertained for several dozen hours more, i think. What does everyone else think?
 
I'd like to hear from anyone with the Knights of the Nine addons installed as to whether Shivering Isles works fine with them. I fully expect them to, but there are always bugs.
 
Aelfgeft said:
I'd like to hear from anyone with the Knights of the Nine addons installed as to whether Shivering Isles works fine with them. I fully expect them to, but there are always bugs.
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One would assume, being that this doesn't really tie into knights at all. But, I just got home with the game, so I can give you a better answer after I install it :)
 
While i havent played the KotN quest yet, the other addons that i've used seem to work fine. I did hear from some people that the 1.2 patch reset some of those quests, but i havent noticed anything like that so far.
 
Going to pick it up soon, but I'll need a weekend to implement it.. I see the v1.2 patch and SI break a few of the mods I use (MMM, Frans, as well as OBSE and OBMM). I'll be using my XP partition to test everything before I move it over to Vista.
 
SPARTAN VI said:
Going to pick it up soon, but I'll need a weekend to implement it.. I see the v1.2 patch and SI break a few of the mods I use (MMM, Frans, as well as OBSE and OBMM). I'll be using my XP partition to test everything before I move it over to Vista.
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So far no issues with any of my mods. MMM has a fix, I don't use Frans, no need for OBSE< and OBMM works fine.
 
Does anyone know if it's ok to bring an Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul character into the expansion? Are there any major issues I should worry about?

EDIT: I think I found my answer on the Bethesda forums. For anyone wondering, apparently it does work fine, although there is an update in order to improve some aspects for the expansion.
 
No conflicts with KotN.

I just got past the gatekeeper, and quit the game because I wanted to know which realm was which (Mania and Dementia) before I chose. I'm going to Mania as soon as I finish this post. :p
 
quadnad said:
Does anyone know if it's ok to bring an Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul character into the expansion? Are there any major issues I should worry about?

EDIT: I think I found my answer on the Bethesda forums. For anyone wondering, apparently it does work fine, although there is an update in order to improve some aspects for the expansion.
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Using OOO, works fine.

My game keeps crashing, which is frustrating as fuck, but its crossfire related.
 
Just got it a few hours ago. It's very fun. :)

Forgot it was a m rated game. I'm only 17... The guy at best buy looked at my id, then at me, and continued to ring it up. :D
 
I'm very happy that Bethesda released the new CS already. I was counting on them to take a couple months as it usually seems they don't care about the mod userbase. From what I've heard of SI is that it is suppose to be extremely fun and much different from Oblivion. I absolutely cannot wait to see what mods come out for it. :D
 
Viper87227 said:
So far no issues with any of my mods. MMM has a fix, I don't use Frans, no need for OBSE< and OBMM works fine.
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Yeah I saw that much, OBSE has a fix too and I hear some scattered complaints about OBMM functionality. I use OBSE for scruggsy's expanded hot keys and thieves arsenal.

Can't wait to dig into the new modders resources though. :D
 
wow... I guess I am going to BestBuy tonight.. lol. I haven't even finished STALKER yet.. and LOTRO open beta starts on friday.. wow.. finally I have games to play.. GAMES I TELL YOU!! GAMES!! weeeee!

sorry.. I had a lot of wheatgrass today.. ;)
 
A question : Does SI pack include the KOTN stuff or I must buy both separately ? I didn't buy the KOTN yet since it was in the middle of my computer overhauling.
 
Viper87227 said:
It appears to be about 1/5th the size of Cyrodil, but I haven't explored fully... so who knows. It's way cooler looking though :)
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I think Bethesda stated it is 1/4 the size. It is pretty big and very pretty. :)
 
Viper87227 said:
It's way cooler looking though :)
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Yeah, i haven't wandered over to Dementia yet but i'm amazed at how Mania looks. The vegetation, trees, and paths are so convoluted and intricate that it's easy to get disoriented if you're not paying attention.

I gotta say that i really like the new creatures. After the mostly ho-hum bears, wolves, and mountain lions it's nice to see some crazy new animals to attack. The wandering daedra in Cyrodil are alright but are still traditional-fantasy looking to me. The animals in SI are just crazy looking and interesting. I also had a wandering Golden Saint save my ass against three larger creatures whose names i forget at the moment. They're grumpy though. :p
 
beanman101283 said:
Yeah, i haven't wandered over to Dementia yet but i'm amazed at how Mania looks. The vegetation, trees, and paths are so convoluted and intricate that it's easy to get disoriented if you're not paying attention.

I gotta say that i really like the new creatures. After the mostly ho-hum bears, wolves, and mountain lions it's nice to see some crazy new animals to attack. The wandering daedra in Cyrodil are alright but are still traditional-fantasy looking to me. The animals in SI are just crazy looking and interesting. I also had a wandering Golden Saint save my ass against three larger creatures whose names i forget at the moment. They're grumpy though. :p
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Yeah, I haven't been into dementia yet either. But Mania is fun. I've been having fun just wandering around. There is a lot to explore.
 
So are Mania and Dementia the 2 provinces, then? Do you have to pick one at the beginning, or something? Everyone seems to have been to Mania but not Dementia, i'm just trying to figure out how it all works.
 
Mansize_tissue said:
So are Mania and Dementia the 2 provinces, then? Do you have to pick one at the beginning, or something? Everyone seems to have been to Mania but not Dementia, i'm just trying to figure out how it all works.
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I think it is half and half and the player can move freely through both at any time. Not entirely sure though.
 
Mansize_tissue said:
So are Mania and Dementia the 2 provinces, then? Do you have to pick one at the beginning, or something? Everyone seems to have been to Mania but not Dementia, i'm just trying to figure out how it all works.
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dj_2004 said:
I think it is half and half and the player can move freely through both at any time. Not entirely sure though.
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I am not entirely sure. They look like they enter in the same place, but are described as vastly different. I have not been to both, but my guess is that they are sort of like parallel universes or something. They are the place, and follow the same quests, but based on which you chose, the landscape, setting, enemies, NPC's (and their thinking), ect., are different.

I'll find out eventually :). I am having to much fun to go back and find out.
 
dj_2004 said:
I think it is half and half and the player can move freely through both at any time. Not entirely sure though.
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Yeah, that's right. When you first leave the Fringe area, there are two doors, one for each area. When you enter one, you can jump over some rocks and get into the other area easily enough. Really, it's just the way the landscapes and, from what i've read, how the people in each area act that defines each. Mania is pretty cheerful looking and fill with colors that are almost too bright. Dementia is depressing looking and looks like everything's dying.
 
Okay, just loaded up a save of mine and snapped two pictures. Both are indeed on the same Isle and can be entered at any time. Difference shot (warning: shows parts of SI):
Mania
Dementia
 
dj_2004 said:
Okay, just loaded up a save of mine and snapped two pictures. Both are indeed on the same Isle and can be entered at any time. Difference shot (warning: shows parts of SI):
Mania
Dementia
Click to expand...

Nice comparison! I guess most people prefer Mania over Dementia, then, seeing as the latter is probably the most drepessing scene on this game.
 
All I can say is that Knights of the Nine and now SI are keeping me going on a 360 console. No errors or bugs so far!
 
I picked SI up tonight at EB with the Guide which is nice cause it includes the KOtN content and I saved by buying it with the game. I'll have to finish STALKER and some of the KOtN quests before I install it though. I only wish all these games I want to play hadn't come out at the same time.
 
Can't wait to pick this up later today. I think it's out today in the United Kingdom.

Quick question, how do you access Mania / Dementia? Is it via a portal and how do you find out where the portal is?
 
Unexplained fact: the "Shivering Isles" are really just one big island with a bunch of smaller islands around it. Mania is on one side of the island, Dementia is on the other.

I've only put a few hours in so far, but I like what I'm seeing, both in terms of visuals and quest design. I'm really hoping they can leave a dedicated DLC team on Oblivion while they work on the next game - their effort so far is really quite impressive.
 
erwos said:
Unexplained fact: the "Shivering Isles" are really just one big island with a bunch of smaller islands around it. Mania is on one side of the island, Dementia is on the other.

I've only put a few hours in so far, but I like what I'm seeing, both in terms of visuals and quest design. I'm really hoping they can leave a dedicated DLC team on Oblivion while they work on the next game - their effort so far is really quite impressive.
Click to expand...

So is there a "line" down the middle of the island splitting the 2 areas? And is it possible to peer over to the other side: looking into Dementia from Mania, for example?

Also, is there some sort of story to the island, like why there are 2, almost completely different (from what i've seen), areas?
 
Mansize_tissue said:
So is there a "line" down the middle of the island splitting the 2 areas? And is it possible to peer over to the other side: looking into Dementia from Mania, for example?

Also, is there some sort of story to the island, like why there are 2, almost completely different (from what i've seen), areas?
Click to expand...

There is no actual line. It uses a transition: the landscape looks more and more dead and the sky gets darker and darker (or the other way around for Mania). This is Sheogorath's realm and he is the daedric prince of madness, so it only suits him to have it this way.
 
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