Oblivion: Cure for Vampirism biggest pain in the ass in gaming.....ever?

So I'm 40 hrs into Oblivion on a core 360 and enjoying it a lot then I hit this quest which just amplifies and exposes the flaws in the game system. Now I'm not exactly on the ball with the games intracacies so I'm guessing that some of this is my own doing but...

In a cave one day I decide to sleep in someones empty bed. So a little dialogue box pops up on the screen to tell me I've been bitten.

So I go to church, healer tells me to ask the mages guild, the mages guild are useless and no helpful dialogue options appear, they also wont sell me anything to help. I look through my quest log only to find that something has popped up. I'm suppossed to see this guy at the arcane university. So being a vampire I can't walk about in daylight, fair enough.

But....when you warp about time passes as if you were actually horsing your way there yourself, one time I actually warped at night and appeared at the height of summertime in a town and had to rush about to get indoors before the game killed me.

So I get to arcane university and the guy I'm suppossed to see is pissing about in the garden behind the front tower (which I have no access to) which inevitibly ends up with me hitting the back button repeatedly waiting for this buttmunch to actually show his face in the main tower. Basically it's me staring at loading screens for ten minutes. So I talk to him, then he sends me to Skingrad, great, another fetch quest. Wait till it gets dark - stare at loading screen - warp to Skingrad - stare at loading screen - get into castle talk with the Count. He.....you guessed it, sends me on another fetch quest to find this woman living in a freaking hut in the middle of the wilderness near a river. So, wait till darkness - stare at loading screen - warp to closest stables - stare at loading screen - BTW you can't warp when you are taking damage from the sun so you MUST wait for darkness.

I get to the nearest stables and ride that horse full pelt to this womans cabin only it's across the river on a steep hillside so I have to abandon the horse and go on foot. I get there and because I hadn't 'discovered' her shack before I had to manually ride there, eating up precious nightime. I get there on the brink of morning, daylight is coming and because of the characters operating on this clock system, her door icon is red and her door is LOCKED.

So, locked door, time running out, sun peeking over the mountains. If I didn't have a lockpick I would be dead. So I pick my way into her house, she's not best pleased but talks to me anyway and send me on a fetch quest to get 5 empty GRAND soul gems. Now here's the problem, it's around 8am, the sun is out, as soon as I step outside I'm taking damage which means I cannot warp (remember I'm in the middle of the wilderness here) and since I picked her lock I'm trespassing and you cannot wait while trespassing and she wants me out.

Essentially I'm stuck. So ignoring the option of waiting 12hrs in here, which is I dunno about an hour and a half real time in her house twiddling my thumbs, I go for broke and leg it to the nearest other location, a fort. So the sun is killing me, I'm having to constantly use magic to top up my health while constantly refilling my life and magicka via expensive bottles of potions. Pain in the ass! I go inside the fortress - stare at loading screen - wait till nightfall - stare at loading screen - exit back outside - stare at loading screen - warp to a town - stare at loading screen - and now I have the problem of grand soul gems.

I picked up 3 on my travels so far, I can't remember how but they are useless to her because they aren't empty. Can you even discharge these things? So my only other option is warping, staring at loading screens and skulking about mages guilds trying to steal them (with some cases being very hard, meaning I cannot pick them at all at my level) and trying to get someone to sell them to me, sometimes being refused service because I'm a despicable vampire beast. And when they do want to sell you one they only have ONE. I need 5.

So working through the pain in the ass barrier I scrape together 5 Grand soul gems which has cost me around 1500 gold plus a little thievery. I get back to the witch - stare at loading screen - she wants me to find 3 other items in abundance:

Blood grass - great I have to travel into oblivion cue warp - stare at loading screen - enter oblivion - stare at loading screen - get grass, exit - stare at loading screen - warp - stare at loading screen -.

Now I know garlic is suppossed to be abundent but no innkeep wants to sell me any and the only place I've been able to find some is weynon priory.

For Nightshade I had to root about in the countryside with creatures attacking me and daylight ever watching on my mind with atrocious loading and frame rate problems (core 360 remember) and I'm still missing a piece of garlic.

Now all I have to do is stab an argonian and not get caught or leg it to a fence and pay off my bounty before the guards kick my ass to kingdom come. And then just go to a cave to kill some uber zombie vampire 4 levels above me.

And then wait stare at loading screen, warp stare at loading screen and I'm guessing pick my way back into the witches house. So I guess I have to fetch quest myself a few more lockpics before I attempt it to be safe: cue more loading screens. 

Yeah I'm really enjoying this. :|

But do you get to bite people?hot114

Yeah but it doesn't seem to do anything from what I can tell. Maybe it enhances vampire attributes I dont even want.

Essentially I'm stuck. So ignoring the option of waiting 12hrs in here, which is I dunno about an hour and a half real time in her house twiddling my thumbs, I go for broke and leg it to the nearest other location, a fort. So the sun is killing me, I'm having to constantly use magic to top up my health while constantly refilling my life and magicka via expensive bottles of potions. Pain in the ass! I go inside the fortress - stare at loading screen - wait till nightfall - stare at loading screen - exit back outside - stare at loading screen - warp to a town - stare at loading screen - and now I have the problem of grand soul gems.

The PC version has a wait option, so I assume that teh Xbox version should as well.

The PC version has a wait option, so I assume that teh Xbox version should as well.

zeus_gb

You cannot wait while trespassing. She wanted me out and it was sunlight outside, when taking damage from sunlight you cannot warp and if you attempt to wait you get frazzled in the sun. Catch 22. And it was only through sheer luck that I had the lockpicks, the potions and the spells to survive the breakneck speed chase to the fort.

It's basically a bunch of design hiccups which make sense in normal gameplay suddenly making the game virtually unworkable in this specific quest.

:lol: yeah its a pain to cure. You can steal i think 1 or 2 grand soul gems from the witches basement and you can "discharge" them by using them to charge an enchanted weapon. Theres garlic in nearly everyones basements in Skingrad and you can buy Nightshade and Bloodgrass from the magic shop in the Imperial City ;)RoflSponge

Don't laugh damnit! I tried using a couple of my existing soul gems, thinking it would discharge them, but they just plain clear disappeared off my menu. Another thing I hate is that you can't really tell who will sell you stuff and who wont until you actually speak to them and look for the half-a-fingernail-sized icon in the bottom left of your screen. The mages guild had me jabbering away to everyone, uselessly.

But, it´s supposed to be difficult finding the cure. After all, you did get bit by a vampire, you know? How could you sleep in an abandoned bed inside a cave? How?????? Oh wait, i did the exact same thing :lol: I don´t even want to remember the time i spent finding the cure. I learned my lesson. Never sleep in a cave. Ever. :DSolid_Snake_7

It was just a whim, you're in a cave, everyone is dead. You're alone, there's a small fire and an empty bed, you think, why not? And BAM, you're screwed. And the game doesn't really make it abundantly clear what you have to do to cure it and what the time limit is for doing it in. If you sleep before it's cured I hear you are stuck with it. I wanted flashing bells and warning lights, directions to the nearest alchemist, a life bar that steadily decreases on screen. Instead the first I noticed of its effects is my eyes turn red and skin gets paler and I can only see this on the menu screen, looking really hard.

Then suddenly your creation moans in sunlight and you think WTF? Oh no...

And being the pure hearted champion I don't want to feed on people.

send me on a fetch quest to get 5 empty GRAND soul gems.gaminggeek

That's were I just got extremely pissed off (because I actually sold 4 grand soul gems on my way to her house), and simply reloaded. Lost about 5 hours of the game. But I learned my lesson: always have a Cure Disease potion handy.

Perhaps I'll explore vampirism someday, but I didn't want to do it with this character.

[QUOTE="gaminggeek"]send me on a fetch quest to get 5 empty GRAND soul gems.UpInFlames

That's were I just got extremely pissed off (because I actually sold 4 grand soul gems on my way to her house), and simply reloaded. Lost about 5 hours of the game. But I learned my lesson: always have a Cure Disease potion handy.

Perhaps I'll explore vampirism someday, but I didn't want to do it with this character.

She's not getting away with this! I'm going to break in and steal the gems in her basement. I may just rip off the whole place, ceramic plates and all to teach her a lesson. :evil:

Also I forgot to mention. I was in Chorral I think and I waited by this beggar who was standing by his bed from 8pm to 8 am the next morning. I thought I'd wait him out and he would eventually go off to bed so I could feed on him. But the clever SOB waited me out! He knew somehow! Argh! :lol: He just stood there in this tense watching game.

Your anecdote makes me want to play Oblivion. I should probably start looking for 360 bargains.toment

Why is it that my pain and torture endears people to play certain games? Do I make you laugh, cruel people? I remember my (ongoing) brink of death R-Type 3 pleas for help and getting similar sentiments.

Next up I'll pretend to be really stuck on a Barbie game and you will all go buy it and suffer like me. S-U-F-F-E-R

It took me 3 days to turn into a vampire after getting infected.  Which occured by accident, I had been infected before but took a cure disease potion.  The next time I just forgot I contracted it.  I didn't have all the trouble you did, just finding one of the plants.

What was annoying was how long it took but I did have 3 days to remove the vampire disease :( 

Loading is terrible on core. At times I put picture-in-picture on my TV and watch programs while it loads. And the outdoor areas chug like hell.

Anyway I just wrapped this quest up. Unbelievable, I got caught in the same catch 22 situation in the same spot, the witches house. So she gives me the potion, enough for two people so I think "Okay I'll just have my half now." I drink it and the entire bottle disappears meaning that there's none left for the counts' wife: re-load > autosave.

Guess that wont work so I have to give it to her first then take my portion. Only, it's daylight outside, I'm trespassing again and the witch wants me out.

So I thought, ah forget it I'm not running to the fortress, i don't even have any potions left and she wants me to leave. So she says that she'll call a guard, there's no guard, we're in the middle of the wilderness.

"I'll take my chances Hag" I reply nonchalantly. So then she starts attacking me and conjurs up this frigging Ice Beast Monster thing that starts ripping the **** out of me. So I get annoyed, hack her to  bits and she sissy girl screams "I give up!" and disappears through a door. I'm good at this point so I decide to go hang out in her basement and poke around. Now when she said "I give up!" I assumed she would stop attacking me. But no, as soon as I get into the basement she conjurs up the ice beast again. GREAT

re-load>autosave

So I decide to talk to her hoping to trigger the reaction where she just goes back to sleep. She does, so I sneak down into her basement (remember that you can't wait while trespassing and can't warp in the sunlight still) so I sit in the basement, turn my tv off and leave the 360 on for an hour and half straight to get to night time. :x

So with that done I step outside -stare at loading screen- warp to skingrad castle -stare at loading screen- talk to the count, drink my potion. I'm cured! Come back tommorrow for the cash he says. After all that, come back tommorrow. So I come back the next day and he gives me 500 measly pieces of gold. It cost me three times as much for the Grand soul gems, I'm now an Argonian murderer with the Dark Brotherhood on my back and I'm out of pocket with something like 6-7 hours pissed down the drain.

So I go back to that witches house and steal every godamn thing she owns and I may pop her with the dark brotherhoods knife too just for kicks.

Vampirism is a pain.. though i did get a kick out of feeding on people in alleys and drinking blood for a bit. The Vile Lair was my cure, no way was I going through all those hoops, I paid my tax and got the easy fix :).

Oh and it's great and noble to be the champion of Cyrodill and all, but you really should start heading down the Dark Brotherhood path at some point - it's without a doubt the most fun and creative quest line in the game in my humble opinion. 

It's even more awesome when you get to the end of the cure quest and then the witch glitches and won't come out of her basement.Alaris83

:lol:

OMG I forgot to mention, when she gave me the potion and I went outside her hut, it was daylight so I tried to go back inside and.......she locked me out. :lol: WHAT?!

Then when I was a vampire in the wilderness approaching morning, there were some enemies in the general vicinity so I couldn't warp so I thought that I'd jump on my horse and run away a bit and warp. But it glitched and my character just kept walking into the horse till the sun came up and I died. One time I tried getting off the horse and a glitch had my character walking in mid-air.

See, I had it worse than that mate.  I had to do what you just said EXCEPT I had been kicked out the sodding Mages Guild (probably heard me saying magic is for poofs) so WHILE being a Vampire I also had to collect some 40 very rare flowers for the head Mage so I would be re-admitted.  And I had to find these things at night because daylight killed me.  I think, over the span of several days, it actually took me TEN HOURS to cure Vampy.  Ten - real world - hours.

 I still played it to 200 hours mind you.

Loading is terrible on core. At times I put picture-in-picture on my TV and watch programs while it loads. And the outdoor areas chug like hell.

Anyway I just wrapped this quest up. Unbelievable, I got caught in the same catch 22 situation in the same spot, the witches house. So she gives me the potion, enough for two people so I think "Okay I'll just have my half now." I drink it and the entire bottle disappears meaning that there's none left for the counts' wife: re-load > autosave.

Guess that wont work so I have to give it to her first then take my portion. Only, it's daylight outside, I'm trespassing again and the witch wants me out.

So I thought, ah forget it I'm not running to the fortress, i don't even have any potions left and she wants me to leave. So she says that she'll call a guard, there's no guard, we're in the middle of the wilderness.

"I'll take my chances Hag" I reply nonchalantly. So then she starts attacking me and conjurs up this frigging Ice Beast Monster thing that starts ripping the **** out of me. So I get annoyed, hack her to  bits and she sissy girl screams "I give up!" and disappears through a door. I'm good at this point so I decide to go hang out in her basement and poke around. Now when she said "I give up!" I assumed she would stop attacking me. But no, as soon as I get into the basement she conjurs up the ice beast again. GREAT

re-load>autosave

So I decide to talk to her hoping to trigger the reaction where she just goes back to sleep. She does, so I sneak down into her basement (remember that you can't wait while trespassing and can't warp in the sunlight still) so I sit in the basement, turn my tv off and leave the 360 on for an hour and half straight to get to night time. :x

So with that done I step outside -stare at loading screen- warp to skingrad castle -stare at loading screen- talk to the count, drink my potion. I'm cured! Come back tommorrow for the cash he says. After all that, come back tommorrow. So I come back the next day and he gives me 500 measly pieces of gold. It cost me three times as much for the Grand soul gems, I'm now an Argonian murderer with the Dark Brotherhood on my back and I'm out of pocket with something like 6-7 hours pissed down the drain.

So I go back to that witches house and steal every godamn thing she owns and I may pop her with the dark brotherhoods knife too just for kicks.

gaminggeek

Nope, that would go to either Total Carnage for being the hardest game ever, or Super Ghouls and Ghosts for the nastiest surprise ever.

"Hey, I know you just made it aaaaaaall the way to the last level after dying hundreds of times for several hours, but you don't have an item you were never told about and that you need to fight Sardius. Go back to the first level and redo a harder version of the game first, making sure you pick up the item. Do not pass GO. Do not collect 200 dollars."

So I'm 40 hrs into Oblivion on a core 360 and enjoying it a lot then I hit this quest which just amplifies and exposes the flaws in the game system. Now I'm not exactly on the ball with the games intracacies so I'm guessing that some of this is my own doing but...

In a cave one day I decide to sleep in someones empty bed. So a little dialogue box pops up on the screen to tell me I've been bitten.

gaminggeek

There's your problem right there :lol: you should know better to not sleep in someone else's bed!  

See, I had it worse than that mate.  I had to do what you just said EXCEPT I had been kicked out the sodding Mages Guild (probably heard me saying magic is for poofs) so WHILE being a Vampire I also had to collect some 40 very rare flowers for the head Mage so I would be re-admitted.  And I had to find these things at night because daylight killed me.  I think, over the span of several days, it actually took me TEN HOURS to cure Vampy.  Ten - real world - hours.

 I still played it to 200 hours mind you.

nailerr

:lol: Ouch.

I forgot to mention that, you have to find flowers IN THE FREAKING DARK. Rooting around the countryside, with daybreak on your back, usually with some wolf turd thing chasing you down or imp firing lightning up your ass, or a CRAB shifting its way towards you and you can't even see anything. Should you not be able to get away in time, you can't warp in daylight or when enemies are nearby so...... you're dead meat again.

Nope, that would go to either Total Carnage for being the hardest game ever, or Super Ghouls and Ghosts for the nastiest surprise ever.

"Hey, I know you just made it aaaaaaall the way to the last level after dying hundreds of times for several hours, but you don't have an item you were never told about and that you need to fight Sardius. Go back to the first level and redo a harder version of the game first, making sure you pick up the item. Do not pass GO. Do not collect 200 dollars."

 

Jagazaar

I still can't find the goddess bracelet.

So I'm 40 hrs into Oblivion on a core 360 and enjoying it a lot then I hit this quest which just amplifies and exposes the flaws in the game system. Now I'm not exactly on the ball with the games intracacies so I'm guessing that some of this is my own doing but...

In a cave one day I decide to sleep in someones empty bed. So a little dialogue box pops up on the screen to tell me I've been bitten.

So I go to church, healer tells me to ask the mages guild, the mages guild are useless and no helpful dialogue options appear, they also wont sell me anything to help. I look through my quest log only to find that something has popped up. I'm suppossed to see this guy at the arcane university. So being a vampire I can't walk about in daylight, fair enough.

But....when you warp about time passes as if you were actually horsing your way there yourself, one time I actually warped at night and appeared at the height of summertime in a town and had to rush about to get indoors before the game killed me.

So I get to arcane university and the guy I'm suppossed to see is pissing about in the garden behind the front tower (which I have no access to) which inevitibly ends up with me hitting the back button repeatedly waiting for this buttmunch to actually show his face in the main tower. Basically it's me staring at loading screens for ten minutes. So I talk to him, then he sends me to Skingrad, great, another fetch quest. Wait till it gets dark - stare at loading screen - warp to Skingrad - stare at loading screen - get into castle talk with the Count. He.....you guessed it, sends me on another fetch quest to find this woman living in a freaking hut in the middle of the wilderness near a river. So, wait till darkness - stare at loading screen - warp to closest stables - stare at loading screen - BTW you can't warp when you are taking damage from the sun so you MUST wait for darkness.

I get to the nearest stables and ride that horse full pelt to this womans cabin only it's across the river on a steep hillside so I have to abandon the horse and go on foot. I get there and because I hadn't 'discovered' her shack before I had to manually ride there, eating up precious nightime. I get there on the brink of morning, daylight is coming and because of the characters operating on this clock system, her door icon is red and her door is LOCKED.

So, locked door, time running out, sun peeking over the mountains. If I didn't have a lockpick I would be dead. So I pick my way into her house, she's not best pleased but talks to me anyway and send me on a fetch quest to get 5 empty GRAND soul gems. Now here's the problem, it's around 8am, the sun is out, as soon as I step outside I'm taking damage which means I cannot warp (remember I'm in the middle of the wilderness here) and since I picked her lock I'm trespassing and you cannot wait while trespassing and she wants me out.

Essentially I'm stuck. So ignoring the option of waiting 12hrs in here, which is I dunno about an hour and a half real time in her house twiddling my thumbs, I go for broke and leg it to the nearest other location, a fort. So the sun is killing me, I'm having to constantly use magic to top up my health while constantly refilling my life and magicka via expensive bottles of potions. Pain in the ass! I go inside the fortress - stare at loading screen - wait till nightfall - stare at loading screen - exit back outside - stare at loading screen - warp to a town - stare at loading screen - and now I have the problem of grand soul gems.

I picked up 3 on my travels so far, I can't remember how but they are useless to her because they aren't empty. Can you even discharge these things? So my only other option is warping, staring at loading screens and skulking about mages guilds trying to steal them (with some cases being very hard, meaning I cannot pick them at all at my level) and trying to get someone to sell them to me, sometimes being refused service because I'm a despicable vampire beast. And when they do want to sell you one they only have ONE. I need 5.

So working through the pain in the ass barrier I scrape together 5 Grand soul gems which has cost me around 1500 gold plus a little thievery. I get back to the witch - stare at loading screen - she wants me to find 3 other items in abundance:

Blood grass - great I have to travel into oblivion cue warp - stare at loading screen - enter oblivion - stare at loading screen - get grass, exit - stare at loading screen - warp - stare at loading screen -.

Now I know garlic is suppossed to be abundent but no innkeep wants to sell me any and the only place I've been able to find some is weynon priory.

For Nightshade I had to root about in the countryside with creatures attacking me and daylight ever watching on my mind with atrocious loading and frame rate problems (core 360 remember) and I'm still missing a piece of garlic.

Now all I have to do is stab an argonian and not get caught or leg it to a fence and pay off my bounty before the guards kick my ass to kingdom come. And then just go to a cave to kill some uber zombie vampire 4 levels above me.

And then wait stare at loading screen, warp stare at loading screen and I'm guessing pick my way back into the witches house. So I guess I have to fetch quest myself a few more lockpics before I attempt it to be safe: cue more loading screens.

Yeah I'm really enjoying this. :|

gaminggeek

Honestly, I was very displeased with Oblivion. I thought I was going to be able to turn into a werewolf then track down the piece of **** that turned me into a vampire and pwn his face--nope. Honestly, I just reverted to my saved progress. I'm not doing that vampire quest, and it IS a major pain in the ass. You're taking it a lot better than I would have, though! :) 

It wasn't so bad, after all you have the early escape option.

[QUOTE="Jagazaar"]

Nope, that would go to either Total Carnage for being the hardest game ever, or Super Ghouls and Ghosts for the nastiest surprise ever.

"Hey, I know you just made it aaaaaaall the way to the last level after dying hundreds of times for several hours, but you don't have an item you were never told about and that you need to fight Sardius. Go back to the first level and redo a harder version of the game first, making sure you pick up the item. Do not pass GO. Do not collect 200 dollars." 

gaminggeek

I still can't find the goddess bracelet.

You need to be on the second playthrough to get it. It's a random weapon drop from what I remember, but it's a pretty bad weapon for the most part so it's best to get it later. Luckily if you don't have it by the time you reach the end of the game for the second time, you only have to do the last stage over and over until you get it and finish the stage with it. The last boss is a wimp, thankfully.

Though I have to admit, after reading your story properly, it seems like another epic exercise in frustration. Lucky you can load your game in Oblivion, eh? ;)