Load Order

[Respute]

I've just recently began getting mods for Oblivion on PC and ive spent many many hours deciding which ones to get. I took care in making sure none of them had any major conflicts (according to their descriptions), and overall should work well together to improve the experience. However after getting everything installed and a about 20 hours of gameplay I have noticed the game crashes alot. It will crash and all I have to do is reboot the game back up and it will go through the same spot it crashed just fine with out a hicup. I was wondering if some more experienced modders etc could help me.

 

Here is a list of my mods all of them were downloaded within the last 4 days so they should be up to date:

-Francesco's Leveled Creatures-Items Mod with the second optional creatures and armor addon

-Mart's Monster Mod (read that it works very well with Francesco's)

-Midas Magic

-Deadly Reflexes (with the patch file)

-Companion Share and Recruit

-Natural Weather

-Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine

-Tyrael Armor (added armor sets mod)

-Armory of the Silver Dragon (added armor sets mod)

-obse

-obmm

 

If anyone can spot any major conflics with just that let me know. But I think its my load order that could be throwing things off. I tried my best to follow each readme on load orders but here is what its currently at as listed on obmm:

 

Oblivion.esm

Toaster Says Share v3.esm

Francesco's Leveled Creatures-Items Mod.esm

Francesco's Optional New Items Add-On.esm

Francesco's Optional New Creatures Add-On.esm

Mart's Monster Mod.esm

HorseCombatMaster.esm

Toaster Says Share Faction Recrtuitment.esp

Francesco's Optional Files.esp

Francesco's day lenght rescale 1-16.esp

Mart's Monster Mod for Francescos.esp

Mart's Monster Mod - Fran's leveled quests.esp

Mart's Monster Mod - Diverse Imperial Armor.esp

Mart's Monster Mod - More Wilderness Life.esp

Mart's Monster Mod - Increased Spawn Rates.esp

Tyrael Armor.esp

Armory of the Silver Dragon.esp

Knights.esp

DLCShiveringIsles.esp

Natural_Habitat_by_Max_Tael.esp

Natural_Water_by_Max_Tael.esp

Natural_Vegetation_by_Max_Tael.esp

Natural_Weather_HDR_by_Max_Tael.esp (HDR is enabled ingame)

MidasSpells.esp

Deadly Reflex 5 - Timed Block and 250% damage.esp

Deadly Reflex 5 - Combat Moves.esp

 

If anyone can spot anything thats fudged up it'd very much appreciated. I ran New Conflict Detector in obmm and basically everything conflicts with everything (included mods of the same author) so thats where im getting this load order idea because according to each mod none of them should have any problems running with eachother.

[Amayakyrol]

2 things:

 

1, What the hell is toaster says share?

 

2, I think HorseCombat.esm (for DR) needs to be second in the load order.

[Respute]

2 things:

 

1, What the hell is toaster says share?

 

2, I think HorseCombat.esm (for DR) needs to be second in the load order.

 

toaster says is part of the companion recruit mod hehe. I will try moving HorseCombat to second. Which would mean second from the top right?

[BossDweebe]

EDIT: Removed incorrect info....

 

Deadly Reflexes is a very popular, but troublesome mod for many.

I haven't used it personally, but read a lot of threads where it is mentioned in

relation to crashes.

Fact is, MMM and Francesco's also seem to prevail in relation to this topic as well.

It may just be because they are so popular.

 

I you read the help file in OBMM (I think) you will get an explanation of the conflict detector.

Basically most conflicts are not really conflicts at all. It is only when a two mods try to change

exactly the same thing that real problems arise.

 

ANYWAY: Oblivion always crashes. More so when you have large complicated mods, and a lot of them,

and high res textures oozing out of every pore, along with fast horses etc.

The fact that you do not always crash in the same spot is a good sign.

I don't know what your system specs are, but the more RAM the merrier, both system and VRAM.

[bben46]

Crashes are a part of the Oblivion experience. It's the game's way of telling you that you need to take a break.

 

There will always be some crashes, all we can do is minimize them.

 

Save often, it will keep the frustration level down.

 

Anything running in the background can cause a crash. Especially a program that likes to call home, such as an antivirus program that updates without warning, or an instant messaging program trying to connect.

 

Start by disabling everything that accesses the internet when you play. that includes the Vonage, Skype, IM, xfire and anything that calls in or out. You might even disable internet access altogether.

 

Many programs use an auto update feature - such as HP printers (how often does your printer driver need updating?)

MS auto update can cause crashes. Some of these will even try to connect when the internet is disabled, and keep trying every ten minutes or so. If you can, disable the autoupdate function, at least while playing.

 

Then look for programs that run in the background, they are stealing time from the game and if they don't give control back quick enough - crash. MS indexing service, antivirus progs that scan everything in the background, Auto defrag programs, Scheduling programs all steal cycles from the game. Any of these can cause crashes.

 

After you have cut down the crashes caused by external stuff, start looking at your mods. Some mods just don't play well with others. And for some the load order is very important. BOSS works for most load order problems, but it can't set them all. There are over 14,000 mods on Tesnexus alone.

 

Another often overlooked source of crashes is removing a mod. If you remove a mod that affects game play, it can cause a crash when something from the missing mod is referenced in game. The most common is the unable to enter Bruma crash. This is caused when you complete a part of the main quest with one character, make a new character, load an old save and try to enter Bruma with the new character. There is something (spoiler) in bruma that references your old character - which is no longer in the game.

 

Then there are the Nvidia black screen crashes. A quick way around them is to disable both AA and HDR in your video settings. Then after you are passed the point where the black screen occurs, re-enable whichever you use. There are many posts telling what has worked for some, and not worked for others, alomg with several mods that help.

 

Try this, Windom Earle_s Oblivion Crash Prevention System

 

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22282

 

It's being updated often so if it doesn't fix all of your crashes check back in a few days. It completely elimited my crash on exit as well as some others (but not all)

 

Note, it is not a mod and doesn't install like a mod, so be sure to read the instructions.

 

New info. A lot of unused .exe files left in the /data folder can cause problems. It seems that Oblivion likes to look through all of the unused files and even the extra folders in the /oblivion folder. new recommendation, make a new folder - OUTSIDE of /oblivion to keep this unused stuff. such as Bethesda/Oblivion_Mods. Note that Later versions of Wrye bash already do this with the ghosting feature. If you have a folder for unused mods in your /Oblivion folder, move it into the new/Oblivion_Mods folder.

 

Essentially, clean up your Oblivion/data folder and move everything not needed in /Oblivion and /Data to a new folder outside of /Oblivion.

 

If you are keeping your original or copies of zipped downloads inside of the /Oblivion folder, move them out too.

 

Also, if you can, empty the windows prefetch folder it may be keeping info on older now unused mods, and Oblivion will look for them if it sees that they are supposed to be there.

 

You probably won't be able to get rid of all of them, but you can minimize them.

[dezdimona]

try this, works for many people

 

General Load-Order Guidelines

Here are the guidelines that I adhere to, personally.

 

~ Unofficial Oblivon Patch should always be first on the list. The fixes are great, but most aren't essential, so if a mod overwrites them its not a big deal, and the fixes have the potential for screwing up other mods if loaded later.

 

~ Offical Content (DLC's) should be loaded last, until you complete all quests associated with them (that includes buying all furniture for the houses and whatnot). Once they're complete, they can be safely moved up in the list. This is especially important for Knights of the Nine, which will have some fairly major problems unless loaded last (unless you get the UOP for KotN)

 

~ Major overhaul mods (OOO, Frans, MMM) should be loaded near the end. That gives you the most complete experience with any of those particular mods. It also lets you carefully choose which other mods to load afterwards... only move mods that you know will conflict and that you want the changes from. For example, I have Improved Soul Gems below OOO because I know that OOO changes the icons of some of the SG's, and ISG needs to be below to show through.

 

Some people will recommend putting larger mods first, but personally I disagree. There are a number of mods out there that make minor tweaks, and loading after a large mod will end up completely overwriting a chunk from one of the bigger mods because of the way conflicts work in Oblivion (even one minor change will take precedence over the entire record... for example, simply tweaking the speed of a weapon can cause every stat of that weapon to be retained to vanilla levels if loaded later).

 

So basically, it stacks up like this...

 

Oblivion.esm

Unofficial Oblivion Patch

<Minor Mods / DLC's (Post-Completion)>

<Major Overhaul Mod/Mods>

<Mods that specifically conflict with overhauls and need to take precedence>

<DLC's (Pre-Completion)>

 

 

 

Expanded Load-Order Guidelines

by dev_akm

 

I would extend this to include:

 

Oblivion.esm

Unofficial Oblivion Patch

<Weather/Environment/Sound Mods>

<Minor Mods/New Items/Houses/DLC's (Post-Completion)>

<Major Overhaul Mods>

<Mods that specifically conflict with overhauls and need to take precedence>

<DLC's (Pre-Completion)>

<Quests>

<Compatibility Patches/UOMP/Merged Leveled Lists>

 

And a special-case warning for Knights.esp (Knights of the Nine) -- you may not be able to move it earlier than some other mods (some people have had problems after moving it before OOO, for example).

 

That's basically the structure I use and I have 140+ mods working well together.

 

Another way of describing this (posted by DMan77):

....

Oblivion

unoffical patch

Deeper realism mods that add sights and sounds

added content like weapons/items

gameplay changes, like 'must eat and sleep'

The OOO type

the 'new begining' type mod..

................................................................................

.................

[BossDweebe]

DEZ -All the times I glanced at your load order comments (because I don't have but the

expected odd crash) I never really understood the pre completion post completion part,

and always thought that SI was supposed to be at the top.

I was thinking of pre-completion DLC's in terms of beta -Duh! :banana: (hey I'm old)

I've only been there for about 30 min. so far and I guess that is why it hasn't caused me any grief.

 

So what is likely to happen with SI at the top pre-completion ?

[dezdimona]

DEZ -All the times I glanced at your load order comments (because I don't have but the

expected odd crash) I never really understood the pre completion post completion part,

and always thought that SI was supposed to be at the top.

I was thinking of pre-completion DLC's in terms of beta -Duh! :banana: (hey I'm old)

I've only been there for about 30 min. so far and I guess that is why it hasn't caused me any grief.

 

So what is likely to happen with SI at the top pre-completion ?

this comes from the wiki

Contents [hide]

1 Exclamation marks instead of an entrance to the Shivering Isles

2 Reference Bug

3 Unable to leave Shivering Isles

4 Sheogorath's Palace Grounds Freeze/Crash

5 I HAVE NO GREETING!

6 Dark Seducer Gender Confusion

7 Doubles with Staff of Worms

8 Invisibility and Loading Screens

9 Big-Head goes Berserk

10 Dawnfang/Duskfang on Horseback

11 Ahjazda won't be Calmed

12 Missing Name item

13 Ring of Disrobing

14 Increase your maximum level and attribute values

15 Disappearing Sheogorath

16 Mesh duplication bug for loading NPCs

17 Felldew Glitch

18 Can't get rid of your bounty

19 Walk Through Walls

20 Bust of Sheogorath

21 Vitharn Floating Glitch

22 Wrong dialogue while fighting the Knights of Order

23 Haskill won't talk

 

also useing the uop for this corrects many of them. I've experienced some of these and it can get quite frustrating

[BossDweebe]

While I do have UOP I will be moving my SI waaay down before I go back.

Looks like lots can go wrong....

Thanks for the info Darl'....