6 replies to this topic

[RavenMind]

Hey everyone. I noticed today that Oblivion: Game of the Year Deluxe edition is on sale now at GOG for $11.99. This is the version that contains ALL of the official DLC, so if you are/were confused by Steam/Bethesda's various versions - this is the one to get.

Perhaps best of all, you'll get a free copy of Arena & Daggerfall! WOOT! I downloaded the whole Elderscrolls series from GOG a few months ago & it's been great!

 

I know if you're reading this, you probably already have a copy of Oblivion. I did too, but there's a few good reasons to pick up the GOG version instead.

• No DRM: For those who don't know, GOG sells LEGITIMATE games with no DRM. You can simply download, install, play, and uninstall all without the stupid disk.
• No going through a 3rd party interface. To be fair, Steam is also having a sale for the same price, but unlike with Steam, GOG's version doesn't require you run it through Steam's application. In addition, you don't have to use a special OBSE Steam loader, which many people seem to be having problems with.
• Not going through Steam avoids numerous problems with Oblivion/Mods caused by it being installed to Program Files, which is where Steam installs to by default. (For those who don't know, moddable games should not be installed to Program Files or Program Files (x86) due to Windows UAC interference.) Just install the GOG version to someplace like C:\Games & you're golden!

GOG does have an interface called "Galaxy" that you can use that is similar to Steam's, but it is entirely optional. I haven't tried it myself, but like that I'm not not FORCED to use it, unlike Steam, and I hear it has some useful features, like easy update installation, library management, etc.

 

 

Also, if interested GOG has the following on sale too:

 

Morrowind: Game of the Year Edition for $8.99 (The best TES game IMO.

(Includes Bloodmoon and Tribunal expansions + Arena & Daggerfall)

The other Official DLC are free, and can be downloaded from Bethesda via UESP.

 

Redguard for $2.99

 

Battlespire for $2.99

(Includes Arena & Daggerfall)

 

All of the above can be purchased at a discounted price of $14.97 by going to one of the above 3 links, where you'll find "Buy Series" below the main file. So you'll get:

Morrowind (+ Bloodmoon & Tribunal), Redguard, Battlespire, Daggerfall, & Arena

(Not bad for 15 bucks!)

 

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition for $11.99

(Includes all five of the Fallout 3 Game Add-on Packs + Arena & Daggerfall)

 

Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition for $11.99

(Includes all addons: Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, and Lonesome Road, + Arena & Daggerfall)

 

The Witcher games & expansions are all 50% off or more.

1-Enhanced, 2-Enhanced, 3-and DLCs as individuals, and 3-GoTY (Includes the base game, all expansions and additional content released to date including Hearts of Stone and the Blood & Wine expansions. See spoiler for more. Or, the whole schebang for $49.44. (See "Buy Series")

Spoiler

Game of the Year Edition
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Game of the Year Edition brings together the base game and all the additional content released to date.
- Includes the Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine expansions, which offer a massive 50 hours of additional storytelling as well as new features and new areas that expand the explorable world by over a third!
- Affords access to all additional content released so far, including weapons, armor, side quests, game modes and new GWENT cards!
- Features all technical and visual updates as well as a new user interface completely redesigned on the basis of feedback from members of the Witcher Community.

 

No, I'm in no way affiliated with GOG, or making any money off of promoting their stuff. I just wanted to bring this to people's attention because I think they're a great service!
 

[RavenMind]

Sale is over.

[anonimousone]

That has an issue though. Related to the date of the .esm esp.

 

I tried to get in touch with gog but they said they can't comply unless bethesda tells otherwise.

[RavenMind]

I reinstalled via the non-Galaxy installer - setup_oblivion_1.2.0416_cs_(12788).exe - which I believe is the latest one, dated 9-21-17 (Which may be when I downloaded it, but it's modified date is that as well.

It's set the date stamps on all the files, including BSAs, ESPs, and the ESM to 7-5-17. This fixed the null date stamp problem you're referring to. With Archive Redirection as the chosen form of archive invalidation, the newer timestamps shouldn't be a problem, as the INI tells Oblivion to look specifically for ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated!.bsa first, which then causes it to redirect to the Textures folder before looking in the Textures BSA (which is what we want).

If this is somehow causing a problem, it's very easy to change the modified dates. Use a free (and clean) utility like BulkFileChanger to change the Modified Date to 1-1-2006 on the BSA's. Optionally, the ESM & ESPs can be changed as well, but that shouldn't matter unless the old installer was used which sets the date to 1969.

[Striker879]

The vanilla game BSA dates will need to be changed for certain ... not sure about whether or not Oblivion.esm will need to be changed but I doubt it will cause any grief set to the same date in year 2006.

 

The dates set on all of the ESP files (whether from mods or from DLCs) will determine the load order. Best bet is to use BOSS to take care of them.

 

I have used File Date Changer 1.61 in the past and it worked well.

[RavenMind]

Thanks for the info Striker! The BSA's will for sure need to be changed? Is my understanding of BSA redirection above incorrect? It's a topic I've had trouble wrapping my head around, but thought I finally got it. Darnit. I *believe* the ESM date is fine as long as it isn't set to 1969 or 1970, which I'm told Oblivion interprets as null. IMO, it couldn't hurt to just set everything to 1/1/2006. I did that with the original bad date release & it worked out fine. Of course anything that changes the load order will redate the modified times of the ESPs, but no biggie there, that's what we want them to do anyway.

 

Coincidentally, the only reason i didn't recommend File Date Changer is because Nir Sofer put up on his site that it's obsolete & to use Bulk File Changer. Personally, I think File Date Changer is easier to use, and has always worked just fine for me.

Here's the link to Nir's site where you can get the file straight from him. Nothing against Softpedia, the download could be fine, I just don't trust those types of sites. (If anyone happens to go to NirSoft, I highly recommend checking out his other programs. He's got dozens or more very useful utilities. I think I've downloaded half his hard drive! LOL)

[Striker879]

In my opinion 'obsolete' can also mean 'we want you to buy this new thing' (which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the 'obsolete' thing not working). I live in the World of Salt, and use many grains in my daily explorations and discoveries.

 

By default the game uses date stamps to determine which thing should be used. For ESPs this works flawlessly. The vanilla game, however, will relentlessly use it's assets from the vanilla BSAs in complete disregard for date. The earlier methods of archive invalidation used non-date related methods to work around this, but they each had problems that required ongoing correction by the user.

 

Then it was discovered that the game only seems to care about the first BSA file found in the list of BSAs in Oblivion.ini (found at SArchiveList in the [Archive] section). What BSA Redirection does is put a dummy BSA with a single unused file in it at the start of the list, and magically the game then decides to use date stamps to determine which assets to use (amazing the stuff I learn following along on DrakeTheDragon's posts).

 

The best part about BSA Redirection is that it requires no ongoing tinkering to keep it working.