Game not recognising mods

[Frogata]

I bought the Game of the Year Edition of Oblivion on Steam a few months ago and played it vanilla for quite some time, and I've just tried to get mods working on it using a combination of NMM and manual installs. Though it doesn't matter how I install them or which mod I try, they don't show up in the data files of the launcher, or ingame. So far I've tried redownloading the game off of steam, updating NMM, and switching between different mods to see if it's a universal problem or a mod-specific one (it seems to be a problem with all mods).

I'm running on Windows 8.1 pro x64.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Oubliette]

For games from Vista on, it's generally not recommended to install moddable games to the default location of C:/Program Files. It causes a bermuda triangle like effect where things that should be there go missing thanks to the UAC. It's possible that this is happening to your system, if so it would be recommended to move steam (yes steam it's pretty easy) to a different location like C:/Games. Afterwards you should stop having problems with plugins not installing properly.

[shinobi2008]

I bought the Game of the Year Edition of Oblivion on Steam a few months ago and played it vanilla for quite some time, and I've just tried to get mods working on it using a combination of NMM and manual installs. Though it doesn't matter how I install them or which mod I try, they don't show up in the data files of the launcher, or ingame. So far I've tried redownloading the game off of steam, updating NMM, and switching between different mods to see if it's a universal problem or a mod-specific one (it seems to be a problem with all mods).

I'm running on Windows 8.1 pro x64.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Unless the mod comes with esp, you will not see the mod from the Oblivion Launcher. There are some mods that are just replacers of the same file. For this you need BSA Redirection to make the game read the replacer files properly. And I also recommend moving the game directory outside of default C:\programs like Oubliette suggested. Here's a modder's guide if you are not familiar with modding Oblivion: http://wiki.theassimilationlab.com/tescosi/Main_Page. The information you can get from that guide is still relevant after all these years. Good luck and have fun modding. :)

[Frogata]

@Oubliette @shinobi2008

 

I tried moving steam out of C:\Program Files, and still not working. The mods I'm trying to get to work are esp files, not BSA, so that shouldn't be the issue. The DLC is also all esp, and those work fine, so I have no idea at all why the mods aren't being recognised. I've never had an issue like this before, and years ago mods worked fine on the disc copy of Oblivion that I had.

[KoderOne]

@Oubliette @shinobi2008

 

I tried moving steam out of C:\Program Files, and still not working. The mods I'm trying to get to work are esp files, not BSA, so that shouldn't be the issue. The DLC is also all esp, and those work fine, so I have no idea at all why the mods aren't being recognised. I've never had an issue like this before, and years ago mods worked fine on the disc copy of Oblivion that I had.

Some mods require OBSE to work. Maybe that is the issue here. You can download the latest version here. There are special requirements for installing OBSE on a steam version of the game. The instructions are here. (You don't need to copy the src-folder, it's just the source code.)

 

When it's installed you don't run Oblivion via the launcher or Oblivion.exe anymore. Use obse_loader.exe. See if it works.

 

Some general tips on modding oblivion:

 

- Don't use NMM.

- Get the 4gb memory fix.

- Always run obse-loader.exe as administrator (in Windows 7 properties you can permanently set this under compatibility options).

- Use BOSS to sort your load order.

- Learn about "Archive Invalidation", it's especially important with Steam-versions of the game. OBMM has an utility for that. I use OBMM for nothing else.

- Familiarize yourself with OBMM and/or Wrye Bash. With some mod configurations the latter is pretty much essential, as they require a bashed patch to work. Don't worry, most of the stuff Wrye does it does automatically, if not the mod usually states what you have to do in the description). Using Wrye Bash will result in a more error free installation in most cases, especially with many mods. It also opens up the possibility to use more plugins then Oblivion's hard coded limit. And it can make different mods work together that normally wouldn't.

- Read the description of any mod you want to install very carefully. If the readme differs from the description on the Nexus, read that too. Many many mods need additional patches depending on the other mods you have installed. Some need a patch for every DLC. As an example Better Cities and Unique Landscapes are two very popular mods that conflict with each other, depending on what you have already installed and which options you choose when installing those mods. Some mods need additional OBSE-Plugins to work. Read the requirements, only activate a mod when you're sure you have ALL the files that you need.

- Seriously don't use NMM.

Edited November 23, 2015 by KoderOne

[bobbyskel78]

well, i know this is an old topic, so i hate to bump it, but i'm having the same problem with the goty deluxe. i have just vanilla also and all was working fine and thus i have a cup coaster for the other. i did find that the GOTY version requires a special obse_loader. https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/37952?tab=files

that fixed obse not loading properly, but the already existing mods will not load and the game freezes on the loading screen. i dug through all of the logs ... no help. i really wanted to check out the DLCs, knights of the nine in particular.

the game does load fine w/ just the bare essentials: UOP, USIP, and UDLCP.