8 replies to this topic

[Eleima]

Greetings everyone!
I've only started playing Oblivion a couple of weeks ago (yes, I know, I'm running late! ), and aside from greatly enjoying the game, I'm also starting to enjoy a few mods. The first one I discovered was one that boosted the Archmage robes (why on Cyrodiil should the Archmage be wearing unenchanted robes, it's just beyond me). And I was having so much fun with it, and was so surprised with the ease with which I installed it (click the box in "data" after dumping the file in the appropriate folder, my technologically impaired mother could do it), I figured "why not install more?"!
So I head towards the Oblivion mods section here at SHS, and find quite a few; then I read somewhere that Nexus had a few good ones. So I check Nexus out, and BAM! thousands and thousands of mods!
Since I'm kinda new to this, I guess I don't really know which ones good, etc, so I figured I'd ask all you seasoned veterans which ones do you use and recommend so that I might have a better idea of what I should get.
Any ideas?

[Yovaneth]

I can't count myself a seasoned player (been at it about six weeks) but a couple of must haves for game management:

Oblivion Mod Manager
Oblivion Scripting Editor 1.4a (required for some mods as it extends the game engine)

These aren't incompatible. Although both OBMM and OBSE launch Oblivion, I use OBMM for management and OBSE to launch the game. For the game environment, the must-haves are:

Qarl's Texture Pack 3
Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul 1.3
Max Tael's Natural Habitats
Unique Landscapes (various authors)

If your jaw dropped when you first started Oblivion, just wait until you've got those installed. You'll need to wire it back up. For in-game tweaks:

Reneer's Guard Overhaul
Reneer's Training Mod
Reneer's Corpse Mod
Sime's Horse Speed Mod
MD Natural Faces 0.93

Most of these I got from www.planetelderscrolls.com. They make a good game better but not great. After that, the sky's the limit but watch for incompatible mods.

I still miss the BG party interaction though...

-Y-

Edited by Yovaneth, 26 May 2008 - 12:45 PM.

[Eleima]

Thank you soooo much for the feedback!!! I'm off to download a bunch of those (Planet Elder Scrolls worked nicely indeed). Now I'll just have to see if my vid card'll take the strain (it's almost 2 years old).
*runs off to play some more*

I still miss the BG party interaction though...

Yeah, me too.... That, and the romances... *sigh* To sit next to a roaring fire with the PC's heart desire, on a ledge overlooking the Niben Bay...


Edit: You were right!!!...

Edited by Eleima, 26 May 2008 - 10:42 PM.

[Eleima]

I figured I'd follow up in my own thread, because I now have a problem that might be the mods' fault, and then again, it might not, anyways, I'm kinda stumped. I tried searching for something similar in the forums and even on the internet, but didn't find much...
I DL'ed and installed a few mods which are:
Almost Everything Visible from a Distance
Archmage Robe Improvements
Better Water Resource
Better Mordryn Oreyn
Burma Mage Guild Restored
Change Your Face
Dude, Where's My Horse
Kvatch Rebuilt
Landscapes
Mountain Tower
nVidia Black Screen Fix
Qarl's Texture Pack 3
White Stallion Lodge Improvements

Thing is, everything was running smoothly, I didn't even have long loading times, and I was riding around and stumbled on Fort Snutch (or something, next to Anvil, along the Coast), and it had these big purple polygons on it. Same thing on Rosentia's house in Leyawiin.

Did I do something wrong, or is it time for me to upgrade my system?

For info, my system is 2 years old and has:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800
2gigs of RAM
Vid card is a SAPPHIRE Radeon X800GTO² avec 256megs of memory
It's not crashing the game or anything, it's just... not pretty...
I'd be grateful for any help you could provide!!

[Yovaneth]

My guess is that the problem lies in the load order. IIRC I think I read that Qarl's Texture Pack has to be loaded before Landscapes. The UL readmes are a good source of what needs to be loaded before what.

-Y-

[Eleima]

That did the trick!!! Thank you so much, you've been a world of help, Yovaneth!!!

I guess I don't have the hang of it though, can't believe I overlooked that in the readme (especially with my super cautious nature which is the result of previous BG2 experiences involving old saved games, mixed up strings, and chaotic installation orders...).

But still, thank you !!!

[SirLancelot]

Two years ago i used a list of mods that worked wonders if installed in the following order: (note that the list is set inside Oblivion Mod Manager and you also need Oblivion Scripting Editor 1.4a, as Yovaneth stated)

Oblivion.esm
UOP (the off patch, install the last one)
discarded //---> Illumination Within Revived v0.92 + Illumination Within Revived Optimized v1.1 (framerate devourer)
Short Grass V2 (to improve FPS)
Advanced_Water v1.0
Heavens Wrath 1.1
discarded //--> Real Sleep v1.4 (a pain in the arse. roplaying friendly, though)
discarded //--> Portable Campsite v2.3 (a pain in the arse. roplaying friendly, though)
Travelers Inn v1.0
Combat FPS Optimizer v1.0 (alt+u)
Expensive Training v1.0
Crowded Cities v1.2 (inst esp 30, one of the most important modifications)
Ruin Companion MOD 1.0 (1.1) (GREAT NPC MOD addition)
Drop Lit Torch In Combat v1.6
Third Person Crosshair Alternative v1.0
discarded//Crowded Roads Revamped v2.0 (i don't remember why i discarded this one, FPS consumer, probably)
MMM v1.71 + v2.0RC (miscellanea and AI mod, very good)
discarded //Quick Feet v1.0 (removed)
Realistic Persuasion v1.8 compatible.esp (roleplaying)
Living Economy v3.63 ((roleplaying plus realism)
Kobus v2.4.1 (you can set how the level up works, must have for my taste)
Kobus Personality Enchancer v2.4.1 (another good addon)
G_'s-Loot-Mod_v2.5.0 (realism and variety)
N´Balanced Weapondry v1.6 + Severians Katanas 1.2 SIN poner su esp (realism and balance)
Reduced Backwards Speed Optimized v1.1 (realism)
More Realistic Encumbrance and Fatigue Mod v1.0 (realism)
Toughter Regen Settings v1.0 (realism)
Deadly Reflex v2.51 (makes combat something more funny)
Level Rates Modified v1.3.1 (you have to adjust this one and Kobus to work together properly)
Persuasion Overhaul v1.1 (must have, revamps the persuasion)
Persuasion Overhaul Patch v1.1

...... but of course, i guess the list is obsolete.

[Eleima]

Sorry for the delay in answering, was away for a couple of days.

Thanks a bunch for answering SirLancelot, I'm going to have to look into each of those, and see if they're obsolete or not...
For one thing, I'm thinking I really should take your advice and Yovaneth's, and install Oblivion Mod Manager and Oblivion Scripting Editor, it'll probably keep my install cleaner.... And thank you so much for including all those short descriptions, those will really come in handy!!
Again, thanks a bunch!!!

PS. SirL... Your kitty's a cutie... Wanted to say that for a while!

Edited by Eleima, 05 June 2008 - 04:51 AM.

[SirLancelot]

You are welcome, Eleima

PS: Yours too. In fact, it's quite the same cat, but mine likes computers.