Jenrai

If it is Dark UI I would guess its a conflict or you didn't install it properly. I've used it for an age and never had any problems with it, either when fast travelling or anything else, beyond the fact it doesn't like formidfinder. Long story. I'm wondering if you picked up a dodgy mod thats telling your game you're always inside, but I don't think I've ever heard of anythin like that for Oblivion, though I have seen it elsewhere. A lot of mods can change simple settings that they are not supposed to touch without even the author ever noticing, so a load order article might help someone spot something thats a bit dodgy. Was Dark UI the only mod you installed yesterday? And, silly question that I forgot: Did you install Dark through OMOD? Cause if you didn't,, read the read me. You need to make some changes to your .ini Jenrai

First guess would be that you have or had a mod that alters Argonians in some way that the game doesn't like. Though I don't see a problem with what you say you've got there, if thats all you've ever had installed. A load order list article would likely help. Meantime, try updating your archiveinvalidation. Easy to do in OBMM. Choose Archive Redirection. I've never directly edited the BSA's and never had any problems with this stuff. If you have directly edited the BSAs, you might have to undo that. (again, simple to do in OBMM) The reason I'm picking this up would be you say it happens when an Argonian is "near" you. If the Argonian's voices, meshes or textures have been altered by a mod, even a mod you don't still have, it could still affect your game if the Archive invalidation is telling Oblivion not to use the default files. If that doesn't help I would suspect we're going to need more information. Jenrai

How often matey? Oblivion is, sadly, incredibly unstable without mods, so when you start modding it its pretty much certified to only get worse, though you should get a good few hours of gameplay out of it. And lest be honest, its really not worth playing to death the way we all seem to (when we're not fixing it, anyways) without mods. Basically, if you're copping this more than once every couple of hours, and it just seems utterly random, you might have a couple of problems. First troubleshooting step I would try if I were you would be to disable auto-saves if you use them. I only mention this because leaving buildings & fast travelling are usually both auto-save moments, and thats known to be buggy as hell anyways. If its really too often to actually play the game, yeah, a load order might help someone spot a problem mod, or whatever. Good Luck. Jenrai

Its crashing before or rather when you see the Bethesda logo? Are you sure you removed all the mods? Because that is, more often than not, a missing master mod for a mod file you have trying to load. Jenrai

Not really related to the issue of uninstalling mods & files, but could be related to your problem with .rars & .7z folders not being recognised as archived (compressed) folders. Your file allocation is squiffy on some level. You have (or had) a program set to opening these file types that wasn't a compression program. When you installed your new program, it likely set itself, or asked you to set it, as the default program for opening compressed files, so you're all good... sort of. See, that file allocation is a nice big fat juicy target for viruses and malware .Yah, I know - these days, everything's a nice, big, fat juicy target for viruses and malware, but that file allocation stuff in particular is - thats how a lot of viruses these days stop your anti-spyware programs from working right. They change that. Files that are then supposed to be opened by, say Norton, try to get opened by Windows Media Player, to use a certain example found on a rather riddled system lately. The next thing it'll do is take a couple of steps to disable your operational warnings. So then your computer won't actually tell you that these components of your anti-spyware/anti-virus or whatever aren't working. It'll just stop, and you won't know it has unless you know exactly what you're looking at in your running processes monitor (usually windows task manager but there are others) Rack your brains. If you seriously cannot remember changing what type of program should be the one thats trying to open archive files, and if no one else uses your computer, seriously think about uninstalling and reinstalling your AV set up. (If you have one. Pllllleeeeaaaaasssseeee tell me you have one) Obviously, disconnect from the internet whilst you're doing that. That should re-establish the allocation for your AV. Update it, and it should then pick up any viruses or malware you've copped for. I'm not saying you definately have a virus, I'm saying that if you & no one else has changed what program windows uses to open archive files, and if you already had a compression agent (like rar, 7zip or whatever) on your computer and you know it was working, that could be one reason it suddenly decided not to anymore. Jenrai

Try the clothes on a female (using HGEC, I hasten to add) bala. Most of the stuff in the Goddess Store is female only, designed for the HGEC bod. The stuff for your stud's can be found in the equally ace Apachii Heroes Store. Jenrai

OOO changes the prices for a heckuva lotta things. Spells, soul gems, certain potions (whilst some others are cheaper or the same price but stronger), most training, ... I really couldn't list them all because this post would be days long. Reasoning behind it is that as you move around through the OOO world, you'll encounter around 4x as many enemies as you usually would and therefore get more loot & earn more dosh, especially at lower levels. Remember the sudden realisation in the vanilla game at level 15 that you were a mult-millionaire and had nothing left to spend the cash on? Well, in OOO that would happen at about level 5 if things weren't so much more expensive. Anyways. Enough of the mumbling. There are mods that reset/higher/lower the house prices in the game, if you grab one of those and load it after OOO that'll overwrite these particular changes for you. Happy Hunting. Jenrai

Is this 'black box' appearing around everything? Or just specific items, such as certain clothing items or weapons. If its only certain things, my first guess would be an effect shader (like the ones that make enchanted clothes glow, or fire enchanced weapons flicker with flame) has gone awol, or a mod conflict has resulted in them getting mixed up. Jenrai

As Vagrant says, a little more info would help. What are the warnings for? What mods are the .esps from? If they are custom mods, what are you trying to do? Non-parent form warnings generally are not severe. Note the generally in there. Sometimes, as with everything thats usually "not severe" with modding, they can be absolutely fatal to a mods playability, and even to the game's stability if you enter cells that contain them. Unless I'm missing a guess (which I'll freely admit wouldn't be the first time) its usually created when someone creates a copy of something, doesn't save it with a unique ID (therefore the CS still associates it with the parent object) but changes something about it so its NOT the parent object. Or some craziness like that. I think the last time I saw this was a custom scripted Sigil Stone that I had made. All I ended up doing was changing it so the game/cs didn't know it was a Sigil Stone, it just used the mesh, texture and the icon. Though if I remember correctly, it worked as it should have in the game either way, so not fatal. Jenrai

I would guess you are using a really, really old FCOM guide there, sport. OBSE Version 18 beta 6 works just dandy with FCOM. I know. I have it and its running fine, and has been since I first installed it. Jenrai

Bah. Bloomin websense. I was trying to find more info on the bundle but unfortunately its getting cut down by websense... I really do need to find more info on sidestepping this. I did notice from one of the tag lines that its not the game of the year editions (and therefore the point in even bothering releasing it AFTER both GotY editions came out was what exactly? Answers on a postcard please. Usual address.) I still can't find out if it ships as 1.20416 or not. Here's what looked like the most promising info link to me. http://kotaku.com/5294094/bioshock-and-oblivion-get-bundle Is from a decent site if I remember correctly and most of their info seems to be accurate, most of the time. Jenrai

Lol. Just lol. But you're all overlooking the greatest ever Oblivion Random NPC conversation; Guard1; Did you hear about the attack on the Chapel in Anvil? All of Dibella's priests and priestesses... Murdered! Random NPC; By the Gods! Jenrai Venom: Can't have been very good Priests then, eh? boom boom. And a couple more; Guard: hah hah hah ha. That was great. How'd it go again? Jenrai Venom: And you're the one protecting the Palace... there's really no hope. Xivali: Die, Mortal! *Xivali promptly runs into lava & frazzles himself* Jenrai: There's not much we can really add to that, is there? Fimion: Fimion hu.... *thwap* Jenrai: We are not going through that cr*p again. *goes back to Cyrodil. Finds sweetcake. Wonders why he went all the way back to cyrodil in the first place. Adds another 20 sweetcakes to his inventory through the mythic power known as "console manipulation"... goes back to Fimion. Hides from Fimion using chameleon. Spends next ten minutes hurling sweetcakes at Fimion using UV's throw feature* Annoying Fan: I saw your match against the grey prince... blah blah bloody blah. Jenrai: Follow your champion. *leads him into Oblivion gate. Tells him to wait by the gate, where its 'safe' ... goes and closes gate.* *Back in Cyrodil* Jenrai: Can't shake the feeling I've forgotten something. Oh well. How sad. Nevermind. Puny Ancus: Spare a coin, guv'nor (or words to that affect) Jenrai: Dang. You look hungry. Stay there. *goes to vendor. Buys pumpkins. Goes back to Puny. Throws Pumpkin at Puny's head using UV's magic again.. Watches the show. (in real life genuine giddy fits of laughter)* Lex: Stop right there criminal scum! You violated... blah blah blah Jenrai: You're not really going to arrest me are you? For what? Assault with a deadly vegetable? Come on Lex. That has to be the funniest thing you've ever seen. Lex: Very well. Then pay with your blood. Jenrai: Oh joy. *throws another Pumpkin at Lex. Runs away giggling* And of course, the classic... and not by any stretch of the truth a figment of my imagination; Fisherman in Weye: You know my great enemy... the one that defeated me? A fish! Go ahead, laugh. Jenrai: *Never one to disappoint the locals, laughs in his face* Truly wicked thread. :) Jenrai

Sounds like you gotta lotta issues there matey... I'm sorry to say it, but your only way forward may very well be that clean install you mentioned. To address some of the issues you asked about. Your ini: Lots of things can alter your ini. Lots and lots. Not just you customising it. Some mods do. Wrye can (only if you tell it to) viruses and malware just lllllurrrveee config files (what could be easier to break?) Fortunately, its real easy to fix. Make a note of all your DELIBERATE customisations & deactivate any mods you have (here's hoping you omoded or used BAIN for them) that alter the start up vids, the menus (typically UI mods like Darn or the BT mod) and fonts, then rename your .ini in the My Documents, My Games, Oblivion folder. Don't delete it just yet. Keep it for reference. Now restart your game. That will force the game to redetect your hardware, resetting your options, but you can fix that later. If things are lookin shiny so far, reactivate the mods that you know made specific changes to your old .ini then add your custom changes. (usually adding BSA archives, turning off boarders, adjusting cell loads and facegen shaders, stuff like that) and fire up your game again. If everything's still lookin groovy, delete the old .ini Your Guards: Unfortunately, the .ini doesn't really tend to deal with stuff like this. Thats a scripting issue... probably related to the guards having too much of it. They seem to get kinda confused and stand there humming to themselves rather than trying to apprehend you, you dangerous criminal you. Maybe its just fear. For entertainment value, modify an NPC's bounty to about 5k and see if the guards pulverize him before he speaks to them. Either way, do you have RGO (Reneers Guard Overhaul) active? This seems to cause some issues with certain other mods installed. I love the mod as an idea but ended up getting rid of it for these reasons, and I've seen a lot of people with complaints about the guards erratic behaviour, or more frequently, none existant behaviour, that seem to be linked to it. I'm watching that eagerly for fixes, but if you have it and really want it you could try rolling back to the older version. I believe 1.## is still available, not sure, as opposed to 2.## Active mods: Unfortunately, most mods do not need to be active to affect your game. Even if you delete the .esps, the textures and meshes are still there, and the game can still end up loading those and causing potential conflicts. Perfect example of such is your blade. The esp is no longer active but the game can still see the model. All the references it needs to load it already exist, and so viola, you keep the blade. The stats may be broken or if its scripted it might simply cause your game to crash when you try to use it, but the game still knows its there, and still thinks it knows what it is. Unfortunately, its wrong. But hey. If you do end up having to resort to a clean install, OMOD (I prefer BAIN but OMOD's a little more powerful and straightforward for most users, I know) everything when you install it. It can take a few minutes to make the OMODs, but it'll save you shedloads of grief later when it comes to troubleshooting. New Game: Some of this will, no doubt, be quest related. Owyn seems to think you're the Arena Grand Champion (test this theory... speak to the Battle Matron. See if she'll set you up with a challenge) and the Adamus Phillada you killed was the wrong one. Confusing, I know. It looked like him, it sounded like him, but believe me, it wasn't him. I made this mistake with someone else once upon a time. The Adamus Philada you're supposed to kill doesn't actually exist until the game puts him where he's supposed to be when it wants him dead. Oh, sure, he'll exist in the CS. Probably with an ID that you simply wouldn't associate with either him, or the DB in your wildest dreams. If you can find him you probably can summon him to you. But I doubt killing him would continue the quest if the game hadn't already placed him where he's supposed to be when he dies. Sounds like maybe a mod interfered with him appearing, originally. Usually, when an NPC is a target, either for theft, murder, whatever, the better console command to use would be center on target, with that quest selected in your journal. I hope some of this helps and makes a bit of sense matey. Good Luck. Jenrai

You're welcome & good luck. ;) Happy beuatifying... or something... :D Jenrai

Because I'm a selfish git. No, seriously, I am. I started modding because I wanted my game to work with every mod I wanted. When I found I had a conflict or even if something just looked a little wrong, I fixed it. If I couldn't fix it it went in the bin, or on the backburner whilst I went off and made myself either the same thing, but better (in my own, not so very humble opinion of course) or taught myself how to fix it. I'm also an eternal twink and an almost ethereal perfectionist. Which is why I've never released anything, and why its difficult for me to really say I ever willl. Even the released mods that I've d/led and merged I consider to be works in progress. I've got some stuff I shared with my brother, that he at least seems to like, and I've just got my housemate into modding things, though he's only got a rather poor lappy so most of the stuff I use would likely reduce his lappy to ash. And last but not least, because I'm greedy. If its available I want it. I'll try pretty much everything once. I always check the recent uploads pages on the Nexus a couple of times a week, I've been through the custom races category about 5 times and I've just finished going through the entire (Yepo... all of it) clothing category and I'm currently going through all the armors. Basically for my "Cyrodil Nexusized" project... if there was ever liable to be a mod I released, that would almost certainly be it, however, due mostly to the fact that getting all the permissions for the mods it will contain when its done is pretty much impossible, but also partly to the fact it'd be an upload the size of Bill Gate's house, and will positely throttle any machine not quite as capable as mine, thats real unlikely to even see my brothers PC, let alone a download server. As I said, I'm a selfish git. :D Jenrai

There is actually a chargen ring mod somewhere on the Nexus... not real sure how glitch free thats going to be and as I know the workaround (well... I think I do - its never naffed up my stats but hey, no promises) I'm not likely to find out. The Workaround 1. Save your game. Back up that save and paste the back up somewhere away from your saves folder if you're feeling uber-cautious. 2. Open the race menu (console command showracemenu) DO NOT CLOSE THE CONSOLE. 3. Make your desired changes. DO NOT CLOSE THE CONSOLE. 4. Open the main menu & save WITHOUT CLOSING THE CHARGEN MENU. If save is greyed out close the main menu, close the console and reopen it WITHOUT saving. Then save. 5. Exit the game. Some people say you don't have to do this, or that you only have to quit out to the start menu. I'm the cautious type. Exit the bloody game. heh heh. 6. Load your new save and enjoy. I recon that should do it. It does for me. But you could always try the ring. Happy hunting. Jenrai

If thats the tutorial I'm thinking of its simply a modelling tutorial. The reson it teaches you how to go about making a replacer is because thats a little more straightforward. I think that the next one in the same series will run you through how to go about adding an entirely new model, but basically: Firstly, make sure your textures and meshes don't use the default game names. If they do, you'll add your new bow, but also overwrite the models of the existing ones. Next, with the textures and meshes in the appropriate folders, open the CS. In the object window, navigate to weapons. To save time with creation here it helps if you find a bow you would like yours to be similar to and right click on it and click "create copy" Double click on the copy to to open its own, item specific information window. (I think hitting i with it highlighted, or right clicking on it and selecting view or something does the same) Alter the information as you desire, making sure that: 1 -You point the mesh to your new model. 2 - You point the textures to your new model. (you should have done this when making the mesh too - made sure your mesh links to your new textures... though you're probably a better modeller than me, do this is likely preaching to the converted. :D ) 3 - You point the icon to your new model, if you've made one. If not select an appropriate one if you don't feel the current one is. 4 - Your new bow has a UNIQUE ID. The name can be a dupe (better if it isn't but it'll work) but the ID MUST be unique or you will have conflicts. I side with the tutorials on this, and use my initials for the prefix, as thats unlikely to be used by anyone else. (you might think it isn't but you don't know my real initials. :D) 5 - Save the new weapon. Really, you should be doing this everytime you make even a tiny, tiny little change with how unstable the CS can be. (And I used to think the game was bad. Sheeesh!) Now, your weapon actually exists as far as the game is concerned, however, its not been placed anywhere yet, so in fact, it doesn't. Open a worldspace you wish to place it in. (or a vendor chest if you want someone to sell it to you. I'm, not going to go into editing levelled lists because thats just waaaay too risky without a full and precise tutorial) Drag your new weapon from the objects list and drop it in the worldspace, using the render window to tweak its position so it doesn't fall through anything and disappear, or click add and stick it in the vendors chest. (note - if you're making a lot of weapons or changes, its a better idea to create a new hidden chest and link it to the vendor or you might create conflicts with other mods) and save again. Exit the CS, check your mod in whatever your launcher of choice is - load it last just for insurance. I've made changes I didn't think were working that actually were, they were just being overwritten by something else - and play. If everything's saved good and your model works, your new bow should be exactly where you left it. Well, maybe not exactly, but thats Havoc for you. :D If I missed anything please don't shoot the messenger. I'm not a modeller. I'm just an eternal twink. :D Good luck. Jenrai

Archive Invalidation is usally quite safe, and silent, however, redirecting the BSA's tends to be preferable to editing them. (I'll be brutally honest here, I've not seen that step recommended. Anywhere. Ever.) I'd tend to steer well clear of directly editing anything that comes with the game. Even the BSAs. One thing Oblivion does that tends to go relatively unnoticed is it'll do some Archive Invalidation for you. (obviously not all or OBMM wouldn't need the feature and ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated (mod) wouldn't exist. The way that works is anything added AFTER Oblivion.esm (which should be everything. If you have mods loading before that you're real likely to have problems) and after the .ini's initialisation (the first thing the game does on loading and that's what loads the default BSA's) writes over the default files... like I said though, it doesn't always work perfectly. I'd suggest you load the mod WITHOUT using the Invalidation, and go check it out. (I don't know the mod so I can't help much with that) Go to the location, use the CS to add an item from it, stuff like that, especially if its a quest mod and you don't have the time or the ability as yet to play through it) and check out how things are working. Chances are the author knows of a conflict with the default BSAs and thats why he's recommending this step, but if everything seems fine you're probably good to go. Just bear it in mind for the future when playing that mod. Alternatively, if its not fine, & looking at the screenie I'd say its something to do with replacement textures for vanilla game items, so something about it will look ripped up if there is a problem, try using the Archive Redirection as opposed to direct edit. If that still doesn't work, you can always give it a shot, but it would be in my overly cautious nature to say no. I've spent WAY too long building my current build to risk borking one of the BSA;s and screwing everything up unless I really, really needed that mod. But that final choice is of course yours and no one elses. By the by... whatever happens, let me know, just for future reference. Good luck with it. Jenrai

Still do what Fonger said (DL and use Boss & read up on Wrye Bash) but I can tell you exactly what was crashing your game. The item interchange and item placement mods MUST be merged into the bashed patch, or they will crash your game. They have around 60, or maybe more, mods as master files, and you don't have all those mods. The reason you CTD'd was missing master. Jenrai

Also, loose that Boarderless Cyrodil mod. They're glitchy as fizz. Change the .ini value (enableborderregions, methinks) or use Wrye Bash tweaks to do it. Then check it with both mods active. I've not heard of it causing anything like this but it is possible that both Unique Forts and Better Cities just don't like that. Oh yeah, remember to change the .ini in My Documents. Not the default one in the Oblivion folder. Never, ever, ever change that. Or I'll send the winged monkeys after you. Jenrai

Nah, you won't. BOSS is simply a wee small .bat file that changes the dates and times your computer believes mods were made, as thats how Oblivion (and therefore any of the load order managers) organise the mods. It doesn't actually do anything to your game. As for the lightening fast levelling, there are a shedload of mods that change the levelling. The one I like best was probably Realistic Levelling, though I'm not sure if its still in development or support as I ended up deciding to stick with the OOO levelling system (I use FCOM) in order to maintain balance. Jenrai

Heh heh. You're so hot you're smoking at the moment Vagrant. So whilst your on a winning streak could you pm me this Saturdays lottery numbers? Cheers. ;) Jenrai

And in future, don't run BOSS with auto-ghost enabled in Wrye Bash. If the mods are ghosted, BOSS can't see them. ;) Jenrai

Don't know if the link or the vid is broken matey, but at home and at work that gets shot down by an immediate time out. Tried at home last night and I've just tried at work again now. :/ Jenrai

If you're careful with your mods (re- use OMOD or BAIN to install EVERYTHING) and keep a close eye on that good old archieve invalidation whatsit whilst you're at it, one install can last a helluva long time. Make regular back ups of your working data folder and keep the zips of every mod you install so you can track what it does and always have the readme's kicking around so you know where you are and you should be golden. Unfortunately, every once in a while the installation can just go south, no matter how careful you are. Thats the same with any software. It just seems more frequent with Oblivion. Jenrai