RatTech2099

As someone who favours light armour for my characters I find agility makes the biggest difference over anything else. I've always played with the difficulty slider in the middle since equal damage for all seems to be the most sensible. I didn't know about the health difference between PCs and NPCs though and I always assumed it was the same

I've only just obtained a pristine copy of 5th Edition, though I haven't tried it yet since I'll have to install a DVD drive in the monster of a dual processor Xeon workstation computer I use as a gaming machine before I can do that. All my Oblivion discs from when I last played the game 3 years ago are older editions and I'm not sure how they would work out with adding DLC and OBSE to them. So basically I'm not really able to give you any disc based game advice about .ini settings since I'm running the GOG version. I am using this mod though which helps with modern 64 bit systems and modern graphics cards and it seems to work well. I'm using a GTX 960 graphics card with 2gb VRAM which is nothing special, but it does make the gameworld look nice at 1280 X 1024 resolution. https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/45266 Sometimes crashes can happen if the cache buffer isn't clearing itself properly and wilderness areas with lots of trees are great for causing CTDs. My own game isn't extensively modded and I'm not using any of the big overhaul mods except for Natural Environments. I do have about 30 mods running altogether which are the usual body, hair and eye replacers as well as various smaller tweaks for things related to gameplay. My daughter mostly worked with fixing faulty business systems software and while she is a gamer she hasn't done much at all with poking around under the hood with the games she plays so I don't think she could give any definitive advice on .ini settings for Oblivion.

I had endless inexplicable CTDs with the Steam version. It all came to a head when I was testing out a mod for a friend and I had so many crashes that the mod's creator was getting worried. So I thought I'd switch everything over to a GOG install of the game and everything was fine. The mod worked perfectly without any problems. Needless to say I'm not going to install a Steam version on any computer of mine ever again.

Yes I found that too. My daughter who used to do software troubleshooting for a living said she thought the Steam version of the game has some different addresses in its code as compared to the disc version of the game which is why some patches and utilities don't work properly. I gave the Steam version the toss since there were so many mysterious problems and glitches with it and I'm now running the GOG version which is LAA enabled right out of the box and suddenly all kinds of problems I was having with various mods have just disappeared.

Are you using an LAA patch at all because that makes a big difference to the game when using a modern computer. https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/45576

Some people don't like the Oblivion realms, but I do. Dangerous puzzle gardens with larva seas nobody wants to paddle in with added pyrotechnics. The problem always was the lack of variety so after a while it got to being, Ok this is No.4, - I go this way, and then over there, dodge that, kill this & etc. I always liked the narrow bridges and especially the ones where some sequence of levers in different places had to be operated to make them slide into position. One of the realms in particular seemed to be in a worse state of disarray than the others with everything either having collapsed into the larva sea or about to so there was a lot more having to find another way around and in some places the way through was across narrow bands of ground that were very close to being swallowed up. Care had to be taken not to fall in so that being ambushed by enemies at critical points was always a concern. I tend to play light armour specialists with good athletic and acrobatic skills so dodging, jumping and climbing was never a problem for them. (Most probably because I spent too much time playing the original classic Tomb Raider games before discovering Morrowind and then Oblivion). The most important thing I feel is having to make the player do some thinking instead of just barging through like a tank.

You may need to start your character off again since your save game might be still referencing the old .kfs files. Truth be told if my own breasts bounced around like most of the BBB animations I'd be off to the doctor quick smart.

I always unzip mod downloads into a seperate folder and then have a good look at the files and how they are structured before installing them into the game. Most of the time it's reasonably self evident where things have to go and it does tend come as a small surprise to me when a mod does have a Readme with good clear instructions or an actual Readme at all. If in doubt break it down into steps and put the texture files into the Texture folder, meshes into the Mesh folder and so on. Writing good instructions is a skill and out in the real world people who know how to write good instructions are much sought after by big companies. Simply because someone knows how to make a good mod doesn't necessarily mean that they know how to write a useful Readme with clear instructions. I think in many cases they assume that because they know how to install a mod that everybody does, - which of course isn't so.

I don't really use companion mods either since my characters tend to be loners, but sometimes it is helpful to get a passing creature on your side should things be getting a bit difficult. I use the Passive Beasts mod as well so every creature in Tamriel doesn't have a sudden suicidal urge to attack the PC instead of doing what most wild creatures will do and keep their distance. Makes the game a bit more believable when travelling in the wild. Should a spriggan start hanging about and being annoying by giggling all the time it's easy enough to give them the 'Dismiss' command again.

I know a lot of players don't like spriggans and they can be a confounded nuisance if you have a character who does a lot of cross country travelling or is an alchemist who goes on ingredient collecting expeditions. I already had the Set And Command Pet mod installed, but have never used it much so the next time a spriggan came running towards me giggling in company with her bear I cast the spell on her. She stopped on the spot and her bear instantly disappeared. I next gave her the 'Dismiss' command and she wandered off to do whatever it is spriggans do. The thing is the spell sticks after the 'Dismiss' command is given so the spriggan will remain friendly should you meet them again days later and they won't attack; - though they do tend to wander nearby giggling at you until they get bored and wander off again. And just as a by the way I wouldn't recommend keeping a spriggan as a beast companion since they giggle constantly and will drive you nuts.

Absolutely agree with the good Reverend's advice. It didn't take me long when I first started playing this game to realise that stacking quick saves on top of one another was a recipe for tears. And I have to say what a very interesting mod. I haven't heard of that one before and I'd really like to try it. Thanks for the link.

Now that is something that's very much needed since the vanilla game has so few variations.

Thanks very much for the link to those instructions. I'll go hide under my bed now and I'll never play Oblivion again. Seriously though there is a lot to digest on that webpage and it will be an enormous help to me when I start to sort out some of my own ancient mods that I archived away years ago.

I had high hopes for this mod and finally ended up deleting it because of all the problems I was having with it. After I kept getting crashes after attempting to enter Miscarcand that was it, - the mod was gone. Now I'm using one of the instant rebuilt Kvatch mods so the city can be seen looking just fine up on top of its high plateau and all the surrounding landscape no longer looks burnt. That's all I really wanted anyway since seeing Kvatch still burning months after the siege was lifted is just plain daft.

That's a good point. I have cleaned the mods I'm using for dirty edits and such, but didn't really take a really close look at what they might change outside of their intended purpose.