Be Excellent To Each Other

i just bought Oblivion for my Computer, and i'm wondering how do you mod it? i cant work out how to

and i've seen loads of mods i want to put on it

Thanks!

I haven't done it for oblivion, but I did for Morrowind, and your best bet is reading here:

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/in ... n_Mods_FAQ

Be aware that there are countless mods, and many are terrific, but will not work together.

There are several suggested mod lists - it's best to start with those and add and take away as you see fit. Unfortunately the lists I used are bookmarked on a different PC, but if you look at arwen's oblivion journal (it's the only one I can remember by name, and is very beginner-friendly),there are some good suggestions. She's a bit obsessed with what some rather cringeworthy roleplaying ones for my taste, but she takes care to explain herself well, and it'll be clear from her description whether you'll want each mod or not.

Her introduction to mods should be very useful if you want a complete 'how to'. Most mods will be relatively easy to install, however some will involve third party programmes and some manual faffing - particularly if they include scripting. I am far from being an expert on any of this, so don't be put off - if you do see an advanced mod that you want to use, make some backups, get the kettle on, and jump in. If I can do it, you'll manage fine.

Best to play vanilla for a bit first, see what you dislike most. Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul is the one almost everyone will recommend, and rightly so, but its changes are major so you may not see the benefit unless you've played the regular game a bit first.

I'd personally go for that, the alternative start one (explained and linked here, which is also a good read, but don't hold your breath for updates), some minor clothing/general body appearance (and yes, that includes nudity for both sexes, because I find it amusing to leave naked bandits propped up against a tree, proudly displaying their bush to passing travellers) and some combination of combat damage/levelling/economy mods. Make sure to have a lot of backups so you can undo a clashing or plain broken mod.

If you use more than a couple of mods (and you probably should), it may take you longer to get the game working than you'll spend playing it. But the most important thing is to remember that you're getting it the way you want it, so have fun!

I borrowed Oblivion for the Xbox from gilly, and have played quite a bit, i got it for the computer for,
1) the mods and
2) The expansion packs i could get with it

Good call. Let us know if you try some good ones - I've only played so many.

I just installed a mod..... called 'armory lab' i think i may have missed a few files..... i have big diamonds with ! in them

[edit]

10 Minute backup of Oblivion\Data *sigh*

get used to that.

haha

found a few mods i want to try...one called 'brotherhood renewed'

I'm kind, so have a link

How do you make a word the link?

I missed a few files

A load of thanks though, i wouldnt have worked it our on my own

[ url=http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=31773] Link words here [/url]

Then delete the spaces.

You'll soon get a feel for which mods are huge and which are tiny and can be easily uninstalled, so the backing up won't be quite as bad. Just don't be tempted to skip it, or you may end up having to redo everything from scratch again.

That Brotherhood thing sounds fun. Lemme know if you're trying out any quest mods - I didn't really go for them when I was playing, as I spent most of my time just arsing around, but even OOO had some quite interesting quests/world details added. I ought to give more of them a go.

I'm keeping a copy of the extracted files as well, so it will be easy enough to copy and paste them back

Loved Oblivion on the 360. Are you looking at the mods for extra missions, Cookie? It's just the main game alone took me over 100hrs to finish on it's own, and then there are still the Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles expansions.

I got knights of the nine and shivering isles with the one I got (when I said 'just got' I meant I've had it for about 2 weeks already I only just thought that some of you might know how to mod it) so I have completed the main SE quest abd nearly finished knights of the nine

found an incompatable mod - but i dont know what one it is, and what one it is incompatable with

Ugh. There is at least one programme that's supposed to help identify clashes. It's hit and miss, but have a look under the tools or utilities sections of any sites you've been using. Other than that, it may be a case of disabling them one at a time to see which one is causing the problem

That's the trouble with modding games, really. You have to take it slowly, adding one at a time, launching the game to see if it works, then carrying on or removing it.

Oblivion can be a fantastic game with the right mods (I found it very dull out of the box), but whenever I try to get back into it I spend more time modding than playing. That misses the point of gaming, really (cough, JC, cough).

When's the next Elder Scrolls out? edit: 11/11/11 - humbug.

OT: I cant wait for Skyrim.

SKYRIM!

I make it at least a year before it's modded into something that isn't fundamentally broken, then. I'd say I hope they've learned from their mistakes, but then remember that these are people who released a combat heavy game without any locational damage whatsoever in 2006.

I still don't understand the default levelling mechanics in Oblivion.

SKYRIM!

Is that when you toss someone's salad in the Mile High Club?

No, it's the sensual art of analingus. With a dragon. Midflight.

Each skill is linked to a stat ("attribute"); eg: Blunt to Strength, Athletics to Speed (or whatever). Each time any of your skills goes up, the amount by which its linked attribute can go up when you next level is raised (so if you've increase the blunt skill lots, your strength can go up by more when you next level). You level when you've increased your primary skills (the seven you choose at the start) a certain number of times.

This means that you can level up really fast by using only your primary skills, but if you do so, the amount by which your stats can go up when you level is reduced. Which means that unless you game the system by deliberately grinding a load of non-primary skills before you increase your primary ones, you can end up as high level with crappy, crappy stats that mean you're hopelessly out-statisticked by every living thing in the world.

And unless you concentrate on fighting/offensive magic skills, you'll end up fucked either way because everything in the world levels up as you do, but is not hampered by having to grind their skills.

Fixing the levelling system is the first thing many modders do. Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul sets it up so that (among many other things) the world doesn't level with you, so going into the wrong cave as a level 4 Facepuncher will be suicide, but also that you won't see two-bit bandits with the armour of the gods once you're high level - weaker enemies stay weak, so once you've got a bit of fight in you, you can swat casual thieves like flies. I also like to use a couple of combat mods (I forget which) to improve the combat AI and crucially, the health/damage system, so that fighting no longer means wearily twatting someone with an axe 600 times, and instead most people with a weapon become a threat, and even at quite low levels, you can take down most non magical enemies with a few solid hits. Also weapons and armour get fucked up much quicker - blocking with a warhammer is still possible, but don't expect to be able to use that warhammer for long.

not-Galsaiah's Character Development (named for a GCD Morrowind mod) changes your levelling system, so that all of your skills directly calculate your stats, and you don't have to worry about choosing which stat to raise - each skill is linked to two or more stats, and stats rise automatically as your skills do, so if you use a lot of blunt weapons, your strength will gradually climb a lot, while your (say) endurance and agility will also rise a little, too.

It's still a bad idea to ever pay the slightest attention to Personality and the related skills, though. Completely, utterly useless.

I like nGCD. It makes a lot more sense and means you don't have to second-guess the system.

That makes sense, but it's tremendous backwards thinking.

OOO was one of the mods I remember installing. And that with Adrenalin Oblivion—which essentially stopped enemies being so sparse and few, turning the game into an adrenalin-fuelled hack 'n' slash—really upped my enjoyment of the game.

Yeah,I liked the sound of that one too, but I don't think my PC could have handled it, and/or it clashed with something. Good idea though. I do have Crowded Roads installed, though - that makes travellers and merchants and assorted generic NPCs wander the roads so the world doesn't seem so dead, and you get the occasional entertaining fight/incident when travelling. I even ran into an 'adventurer' stalking through a cave once - that was pretty neat, especially when we teamed up to take down a maurader. Who pretty much cut the 'adventurer' in two, but still.

Also it's pretty fun when some passer by pitches into a difficult fight, and you can either heroically stay to fight with them, or, more sensibly, run like buggery and hope the nasty is happy with one out of two.

It was quite taxing on the hardware, definitely. It was worth switching the graphics down for, though.

I like the sound of that Crowded Roads mod, but I'm not reading any further as I definitely don't want to get back into this game.

Restoring from backup

You swine. You've got me playing Oblivion again. I've fewer mods active than I realised, but lots installed. I've got a good balance of them going now, and even one that removes the incredibly irritating staggering effect whenever someone blocks your attacks (so battles no longer turn into endless block-counter-repeat, and fighting someone with a shield forces you to time your attacks or zap them), among others. Also some great magic mods with some really fun effects that Skyrim really ought to include (hell, oblivion should have). eg: 'wind play', which means with a single touch you can launch an opponent skyward to get them off your back/a bridge. It also improves some of the benefits for improving magic skills - improving conjuration, for example, means you can have more nasties under your command at once.

Also one of the UI mods, primarily for de-uglying the menus, but also for the very flexible options like disabling the compass and map markers, which I found mostly just irritating (see also: Fallout 3). And one of OOO's neater features is that mega-hard creatures like goblin warlords, instead of looking pretty much the same but having massive stat boosts, are frickin' huge. Even the rats, crabs and wolves (which are no longer suicidal and will largely ignore you unless disturbed) are visibly varied in their, uh, volume.

The combat/damage mods in particular are ace (it's in the Duke Patrick's SCA xxx range) - more than once, the first I've known of an archer's presence is when someone I was fighting suddenly got taken out with a single shot, and I've had to guess where it came from by how they fell, and leg it. Repeatedly conjuring crappy skeletons until the archer runs out of arrows is also quite entertaining.

On the downside, I can't seem to alter the 'stagger' effect when you're hit, which is incredibly irritating as it means that very frequently, taking a single hit of any kind in a fight - and even some non-shield blocks - means you may as well reload, because you'll be stunlocked until dead. Also arrows for some reason have become very slow, so archery is a bit silly (though I'm trying not to use it for once, and actually quite enjoying having a massive hulking war hammer person, batting people aside and shrugging off their pissy little toy knives).

You sods. Still, is all fun. I've broken my current game's rule of 'no looting' and 'only carry x of each item type' because the economy mods I've installed will make it otherwise impossible to afford somewhere to put stuff, but once I've got one, a noble trophy hunter I shall be! Rather than, y'know, casually shooting and robbing absolutely everyone who gives me any lip. Forcing yourself to play with restrictions (a la the inspired Livin' in Oblivion) can make things seem a lot more fun than I'd expected.

Any chance you can post a list of the mods you have? some of them sound quite fun.

Yes! It'll be a bit later though, as it's on another PC. There are lots installed but relatively few active, and it's so long since I set it up that I'm not sure which one is which, but I'll have a look.

Hoboy. I have a lot more on than I'd realised. These are all the mods I have 'active'. I have several alternatives installed, but what I do not have is the patience to try them all, so if you see some that sound better than the below, go for it.

Bold indicates one I consider a particularly good one that most people might be interested in, rather than more niche ones.

Some (SM, LAME & MOA) are collections of related mods/add-ons that I've kept together rather than fully separating. The end of these lists is marked with a </MAIN MOD NAME>.

I have used QUOTE tags in some areas to help separate my rambling anecdotes from the mod descriptions. I have not linked to these mods because fucking hell, have you seen how long this is already? I'll do it if there's enough call for it, but not tonight.





Utilities:

*Oblivion Script Extender. Many of the more interesting mods need this. I can't remember how it's set up and I'm leaving it well alone because it's now working, but it's very very easy to use once it's set up - if I can manage it, you'll be fine.

Wrye Bash - I don't know how or why I used this or what for, but I did. Once I did whatever I did, I just left it and all seems fine. I followed a guide somewhere. Possibly Arwen's.

Oblivion Mod Manager



Levelling/game structure


Oscuro's oblivion Overhaul - changes lots about the game - levelling, stats, monsters, items, adds lots of new world detail, monster types, all sorts.

not Galsiah's Character Development - worry about levelling no longer; your skills directly affect your stats without your having to grind or game the system. You don't have to choose between 5 more personality and 3 more Endurance anymore - if you've increased the skills, your stats will go up. Complements OOO quite well. Requires OBSE*

Cutthroat Merchants - makes barter ranges wider and merchants more skinflint. Makes cashflow a bit tougher at the start, and mercantile actually worth considering.

Living economy & items plug-in - Makes the economy actually an economy. Very simple, so don't expect Elite, but prices of goods will vary according to region, shop, and quantity, plus there are some changes to merchant skills. I'm unsure which of this and the cutthroat Merchants or realistic prices mod are dominant, or which one is doing what. Sorry. They appear to at least not kill the game, anyway, hence my leaving them alone.



Combat

Hardcore Damage II - makes weapons hit a LOT harder. Changes enchated battery power, and increases the damage resistance of armour and weapons to compensate, however both are still MUCH easier to break, so most human-sized enemies will go down with a couple of solid blows (about three to five warhammer shots for quite tough ones using mid-40s blunt skill. Landing a charged up blow with a big weapon will basically ruin anyone's day. Oh, and enemy weapons also hit harder. Learn to avoid archers fast - I recommend conjuring cheap cannon fodder, staggering them with magic and charging (this mod goes well with the magic mods as the extra magic effects stagger and knock over weaker enemies more often), and/or running and hiding. Sobbing into your armour is optional)

Black's OB_Realism - I can't remember what this does. I think it overlaps with the damage mod, and possibly a creature AI one - one mod has turned the wildlife mostly docile unless disturbed, which is a godsend if you're sick of everything in the world hurling itself blindly at your sword. I can't remember which, though. Sorry.

Duke Patrick's SCA style combat NO RECOIL silver edition V5.1 - SCA combat is some kind of re-enactment tournament or something, iono, the creator of this is obsessed with modelling that, rather than directly modelling combat, but it works. The upshot is basically improved enemy fight AI - they try to flank and will often surround you; hitting a shield no longer makes you (or them) recoil; magic staggers less often; and you have to be a lot more precise with melee attacks and blocks, especially without a shield - blocking out of position will get you cut up. Catching someone off guard will more often than not mean that you've won.





Magic




Supreme Magicka

This and the add-ons make many changes to the magicka system. I am unsure which of this and LAME is dominant, but again, they appear to mix well.

*SigilStone - balances sigil stones

*Scrolls - balances scrolls

*EnchantStaff - adds unenchanted staffs (there are some used as weak defences a la shields, and some used as torches. I think this is the mod that introduces them) and allows you to enchant them. I've not really used these and I think you need access to the University to enchant them, but they fetch a decent price and make quite nice trophies.

*OOO - compatibility with OOO.

</SM>


less annoying magic experience:

This and the add-ons add loads of new spells and spell effects, particularly to the more rubbish schools like mysticism. This requires OBSE*:

*startspells - changes your starting spells to fit what, if any, magical skills you started the game with. Allows you a choice between some spells (eg: high destruction = fireball or ice bolt)

*magicbonus - changes some of the birth sign powers to stat or skill boosts instead. I always forget to use the powers, so this suits me.

*EVShader - supposedly makes some magic effects more fancy (eg: fire swords actually burn), but I can't say I've noticed. It could be that I'd notice if I switched this off, though. Also possible that my video options have disabled this.

*ShaderlifeDetect - changes the 'detect life' effect. See above.

*lightningbolt - changes shock bolts into lightning spikes. See above.

*conjuration for Supreme MAgicka- compatibility with SM's summoning spells.

</LAME>




M.O.E (Modular Oblivion Enhanced):



*Mythic Dawn Powers (a few special spells if you join them - not tried yet)

*Hunger effects (to make some actual use of food for a non-alchemist, and make it feel less 'gamey'. Doesn't work if you become a vampire, even if you later get cured. A bit annoying, as I accidentally became a vamp almost immediately. Fucking diseases)

*Realistic Law Enforcement (attempt to bribe guards, increase bountyfor resisting, mandatory death sentence for big bounties, some other tweaks I haven't really looked at)

* Unlocked Hairstyles (a tiny bit more variety)

*Levitation Magic (someone sells a levitation spell. Not tried it yet)

*Teleportation magic & icarian flight (massive jumping spells) - These are Mysticism spells that make Mysticism actually worth bothering with, and happily I happen to be playing as a character who has all the skils I never use, for variety, like. You can buy expensive spells to teleport to any city, and Mark/Recall, which lets you set a point and then teleport to it. Very handy, and I think this one also enables scrolls with those spells if you're not a magic person.

*The Black Sacrament - lets you hire the Dark Brotherhood, after what sounds like a fairly pain-in-the-arse quest for certain items. Not tried it yet, though I have found the book that tells you how to summon them.

*New Staffs, Blight and Ashstorms - some staffs in a shop that allow you to do some powerful or simply atmospheric things like change the weather or deep fry someone's children or something. Not tried yet (although I did piss about with a spell that changed the weahter, which was quite nice.. That might be from a different mod though)

*Realistic Prices, Realistic Weights, no quest items - changes the weight and prices of most objects. Also removes the 'undroppable' tag from quest items, so be careful.

*Vampire players scarier - makes a vamp player scare people sooner, changing dialogue and sometimes making them attack you (you are allowed to defend yourself). I've avoided advanced vampirism, so haven't really tried this.

*Travel services - a small but very thoughtful add on making the stables actually worth visiting (because horses are pointless) - talk to the stablemaster and they can transport you to the other cities for a small fee (~10-60 gold if they like you, which they will because if you can't win the persuasion minigame every time, I'm afraid I must inform you that you are dead).

*Main Quest Delayer - instead of starting in the prisons, you start on a boat outside Anvil (West coast) with a few pennies, a knife, and some bits of food. Kvatch is sealed off (just pretend it doesn't exist), and the Emperor is alive and well. The main quest only activates if you commit a crime and get captured in the Imperial City. Ideal if, like me, you immediately fuck the main quest off every time, or you just want to skip the whole intro bit and try out a new character.

</MOE>



Convenience/misc


P1DMenuEscape - adds some easy menu exits - right clicking or whatever you assign will close menus and dialogue boxes, instead of ha ving to faff about looking for the icons.

P1DKeychain - a MUST HAVE. Instaed of fifty bajillion keys, you have a key chain. All keys are automatically added to it. Never worry about keys again.

P1DextraMouseButton - allows middle mouse button to do stuff, including exit menus (I think).

Poison Combiner - adds a weightless item to your luggage that lets you combine the effects of different poisons. For once, I'm avoiding alchemy, so I haven't tried this yet.

Oss133Framerateoptimizer - frame rate optimizer. I didn't even know I had this, and wouldn't have guessed as it appears to not work (or I haven't set it up properly).

Dark UI Mod (I think that's what it's called). It changes lots about the inventory menus and it's all for the better - prettier, but also a much cleaner, clearer display of information, and the option to disable or re-enable at will all the map icons, and a detailed menu to change, rearranged, or remove each portion of the HUD at your leisure. The only downside is that you have to re-adjust it every time you boot up the game, but it's a small flaw and the time you'll save scrolling back and forth through your inventory makes it a net gain.

Days&Months - adds normal days and months to the date panels, because you can fuck off if I care what month "Frost Nonce" is or whatever.

Crowded Roads - Assorted generic NPCs ("traveller"; "merchant", etc.) will wander between cities on the roads - you'll bump into them now and then, and can chat briefly, practice your speech, trade with some of them, or just rob and/or kill them. Be aware that some named NPCs will also appear in the wilds or strange cities - you may want to look up some console commands to bring key people back to life if this happens, as they may otherwise get killed and ruin a quest. I use the "7" version. 15 & 23 offer more traffic, but I found they led to glitchy pile-ups outside the cities and too many people in the wilds.



Prettifying:


Natural Weather/water/habitat/vegetation by Max Tael - makes the environment nicer and adds some ambient fauna without any noticeable performance hit. It's subtly done, too - you get the occasional butterfly or a bird going overhead.

Harvest (Flora) - adds a graphic to all harvested plants. Makes no difference to performance, but saves you wasting time if you're a herb gathering type.

MaleBodyReplacer (tackle! TACKLE!)

Female EyeCandy - Body Replacer (nude) 1.0 - you would not believe the hassle I had trying to find simple nude mods with normal, flaccid men, and women who weren't all shaven-crotched blimp-tit support systems. But it was worth it in the end for a bit of realism, and the occasional amusing moment as I notice I've been clomping about on noble quests to save the peasantry from evil monsters, while flashing everyone my vadge.

They sound cool - but considering what age I am, I will probaly get into trouble if I installed the last one - so I'll try them all except the last one!

S.A. is the new Grim...