Oblivion talk:Getting Around

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I've created this new section to collect tips on how to walk/run/swim/travel in Oblivion. I don't know if Getting Around is the best title for the page, it's just the best that I could think of at the moment. At the moment, it's primarily items that I'm moving out of the Tips section. --Nephele 20:14, 16 June 2006 (EDT)

Moving Lots of Items with your Horse[edit]

I recently put together a few differnt notes/hints to come up with a very effective way to move a large mass of items that should be listed under the 1.2 Carrying Lots of Items section.

  1. you can picking up items while on horse back
  2. the horse can walk/run even though you are over encumbered (can't fast travel or jump though)
  3. there seems to be no limit to how much you can store in containers (i.e a barrels)
  4. barrels are tall enough that you can open them while on your horse and transfer items

I was able to loot the entire city of Chorrol of everything of any value and placed the items in the barrel just outside the South Gate. Then I rode up beside the barrel on my horse and retrieved the entire contents of the barrel, while the guard wasn't looking. If I remember correctly, the weight was over 3000 or aproximately 15x what I could normally carry.

First stop, I rode to the barrel at the stable outside the Imperial City and deposited the legally obtained items. Next, I rode to the entrance of the Bruma Caverns, dismounted and dropped the items on the ground that were over encumbering me (have to be careful here because some of the round items might roll down the hill). Then it was a simple task of cleaning out the cavern of any vermin (or Mystic Dawn spies) that may have appeared recently. I was then free to carry my stolen loot into the basement of Jearl's house without fear of attack or being spotted by the guards. I dropped everything in the basement, armour, weapons, potions, misc and went back for another load. Jearl's basement has several nice containers for storing items (2 boxes, a cabinet, and a pot). It was also a convienient place to try and exploit the 'Clear the Stolen Flag' glitch. Convieniently, now my ill-gotten treasure is stored right across the street from Ongar, my fence, ready to be sold any time I need some gold and my legally owned items are at the stables outside the Imperial City ready to be moved to my shack or sold in the Market District.

I also found that I could create other containers that can be opened while riding your horse. I have dragged a wolf corpse to the top of a boulder that my horse could walk beside and that worked as well as any barrel or chest. Setting up a corpse at either end of the journey is really helpful and it provides some extra flexability. --RobertDB 10:00, 23 July 2007 (EDT)


Little Problem with Containers[edit]

Unfortunately, the item I stored in the 2 boxes and the cabinet dissappeared after a couple of in-game days, but interstingly enough the items in the pot remained.

Maybe I need to create/contribute a topic on Containers under the Oblivion:Hints section. Does anybody have some expertice or knowledge they could provide?--RobertDB 10:01, 23 July 2007 (EDT)

See Oblivion:Dungeons#Loot for information on respawning containers. Nearly all containers in the game respawn. The main exceptions are the containers found in the houses that you can buy, which is one of the most important advantages of buying a house. --NepheleTalk 12:54, 23 July 2007 (EDT)

Why paintbrushes float.[edit]

Just for clarification, paintbrushes float because of an error in the mesh for collision data.-Mr. V 12:42, 17 February 2008 (EST)

The impact of Active Speed on Fast Travel[edit]

(see http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion_talk:Movement_Formulas if you don't know what Active Speed is). You are always assumed to be walking rather than running, which is another reason why "Fast" Travel isn't.

Fast Travel ELAPSED Time, Rosethorn Hall to Weatherleah, 50S, 50A, 10HA

  • Naked: 9 hours
  • Blades Armor (minus Shield) unarmed: 10 hours
  • Blades Armor (minus Shield), Dremora Mace: 12 hours
  • Blades Armor (minus Shield), Dremora Mace, combat ready: 14 hours
  • Naked, sneaking: 14 hours
  • Blades Armor (minus Shield), Dremora Mace, combat ready, sneaking: *24* hours!

Beyond a certain distance (not sure what it's based on) Fast Travel only affects the HOURS part of the clock. Whether it's rounded up, down, or nearest is unknown. — Unsigned comment by Aliana (talkcontribs) on 28 October 2008

I can't seem to find a specific mention of fast travel at that article. Did you test the hours it would take to walk/run those routes manually as well? --Timenn < talk > 04:14, 29 October 2008 (EDT)
"Fast Travel - "Normally" should do it" - DOH! How did I not think of that?!
The other article is focused on "Normal Movement" - Fast Travel stuff is all in this one. The point is that the "movement state" you're in when you DO fast travel determines how long the travel takes, as if you ACTUALLY walk the whole thing, just without you the player being involved in it, and the rest of the world "shut down" so you don't get attacked etc.
It takes a little under 4 hours to manually walk that route (naked), hence the "roads" comment a few weeks ago - you take a HUGE detour if you fast-travel it, almost certainly going to Chorrol/Weynon/whatever first and then going SE halfway to the Imperial City then WSW to Skingrad. If you break the journey up YOURSELF, by fast-traveling to/from Sanguine as a "waystation" so the game CAN'T use roads for any of it, it only takes about 3 hours.
--Aliana 19:52, 29 October 2008 (EDT)

I was making some custom spells in the Arcane University: Fast Travel 1: Fortify Speed 100, Fortify Athletics 100, 15 secs. Fast Travel 2: Same effects, 13 seconds. Fast Travel 3 & 4 as well. I go just outside and cast all of them with the proper order. With my natural 100 speed and athletics i reach a total of 500 speed 500 athletics. Then i press Tab and fast travel to Anvil (from arcane university), result: 1 hour. 80.240.21.205 01:08, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Am I just Imagining This?[edit]

I've realized that having a temporary speed boost spell on right before fast traveling seems to have a noticable effect on how long it takes, and is a great way to save Game Time. One time I traveled to Anvil without any spell, then the second time I had to reload the game and fast travel there agin, but this time when I used spell and fast traveled, I realized I had arrive around 2 hours earlier.

I also just tried this out with my black horse. I blasting him with a few speed bost spells (which totaled around 80+ points of boost) and fast traveled from an area North of Chorrol to Skingrad's Northern-Most gate. And the fast travel only took around 2 hours! --Zirakseez 16:14, 28 November 2008 (EST)

'8 hrs from Skingrad to Chorrol' removed indefinitely[edit]

The article is deficient in this respect: that the anecdotal accounts are not sufficient evidence for a unified theory of how fast travel, walking or horse speed, starting point and destination fit together to get a travel time. You travelled from Chorrol to Skingrad with a speed boost in 2 hours, I travelled from Skingrad to Chorrol without a speed boost, with the Priory's starting horse, in one hour and two minutes (one hour one minute for the slightly longer trip to the Chorrol south gate), and the little story printed in the main article claims to have taken 8 hours to do the same trip on Shadowmere, with this anecdotal evidence presented as though it were facts that covered all circumstances, when it clearly does not. I am removing the latter immediately until a consensus is reached, preferably with some hard game code as evidence. Anarchangel 11:15, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Moved to talk (I do not think the Armand and Vampirism notes should be in the article at all, and the rest sounds like the writer fast travelled from within the Skingrad city walls, and therefore fast travelled at walk speed):
"You (or your horse) are also always assumed to be in "Walk" mode for the estimate, which may also include various pathing deviations (i.e. using roads, avoiding cliff drops, etc) that can slow it down even more. As a result, "Fast" Travel is always overwhelmingly slower in terms of the game clock than "real" travel: for example, Fast Traveling from Skingrad to Chorrol on Shadowmere takes 8+ hours of "elapsed" time, while actually galloping north yourself takes roughly 90 minutes. This can be significant if you need to be somewhere within a specific timeframe (Armand, shops, etc), or avoid one (Vampirism)."
Moved by Anarchangel 11:46, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm the original author of that section (and indeed, a significant amount of the "technical details of speed and travel" articles on this site). Your assumption is correct: a critical piece of the comment, "on Shadowmere", meant "while having Shadowmere as your current horse". The problem is, back then nobody actually knew that fast travel acted that way and the two cases were nothing alike, which everyone had been assuming they were.
So yes, it was "fast travel at unmounted Active Speed". This particular incident is what prompted me to investigate the true underlying mechanics / behavior of fast travel and general movement in the first place, which all took place on the Movement Formulas page rather than here.
The comment is otherwise correct, and IMO provides a good example of the scale of the elapsed time differences involved for what are (or at least, "should be") equivalent actions from a player perspective.
Armand / Shops / Vampirism are examples of WHY the differences are sometimes important to players. Shade Of The Revenant would be an even better one.
Since the main article now actually includes the rather critical, emphasised, "only if you are mounted at the time" part, which it didn't back then (since no-one had actually that out at the time), I agree that the comment is best kept on the talk page as an example rather than "cluttering" the article itself.
But now you know. :) -- Ali (who has long since lost the password for this account) 71.84.123.86 12:03, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Random arrows[edit]

Sometimes when I fast travel, arrows just appear on my character. No damage, though. Did someone shoot me during fast travel?

About 2 methods of travel[edit]

  • Cheap Raft - use the item duplication glitch to fill a pool of water with items that float on the surface (scrolls, clothes). You can walk on them and won't sink. A simpler and less time consuming alternative is to simply cast water walking spells.
  • Body Surfing - Kill a creature (the larger the better) push it into the water so it floats. Then jump on it and use your grab key to pull it in front of you while walking slowly. Free water walking!

I still believe that these should be removed... Slowness IS a reason these shouldnt be on the page. Walking 2 steps forward and 1 step back is also a method of getting places... it is slow as hell, but if those are in the article, then you can basically put any method of travel here, even if they are useless...--Catmaniac66 19:05, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

How is Walking-1-forward-and-2-back different from "walking"?
These other methods, although slow, are alternatives to swimming and waterwalking. --Brf 19:08, 14 January 2011 (UTC)
It is different because it is very much slower... Like I was saying, if you allow methods that are ridiculously slow, then the exaggerated version I mentioned should be allowed. Alternatives should be things like the Jumping suggestions in the same section. They are either faster or just as fast... These 2 are just bad, and the first one even says "A simpler and less time consuming alternative"...--Catmaniac66 19:19, 14 January 2011 (UTC)
"Walking-2-forward-and-1-back" is still walking, so it is not an alternative to walking. Walking is walking. These other methods of crossing water are valid because they are different from waterwalking and swimming, you might not have a waterwalking spell, and you might not want to be attacked by slaughterfish. --Brf 19:25, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

I can`t fast travel anymore.[edit]

I'm playing on a PS3. After leaving Forsaken Mine, the fast travel is gone. I've tried reloading, waiting, sleeping, going in and out of shops and towns and starting the game again. It is as Fast Travel never existed. The last save I've done is quite far behind. Is there anything I can do? Edit: After finishing 'The Hist', everything went back to normal. Most odd!